Jacob Elordi queer thriller Saltburn promises tears and tension in full-length trailer

Jacob Elordi (L) and Barry Keoghan (R) in new trailer for Saltburn.

The full-length trailer for Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan’s queer new thriller Saltburn has landed, and it’s teasing sexual tension, terror – and a fair bit of comedy, too.

Saltburn stars Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi as Felix Catton, the son of the aristocratic Catton family. Oscar-nominated The Banshees of Inisherin star Barry Keoghan is Oliver Quick, a seemingly working class recluse who arrives at Oxford University on the hunt for friends.

As the new trailer shows, Felix and Oliver hit it off when Oliver offers his bike when Felix’s gets a puncture. 

Soon enough, the pair are bonding over their respective family lives – even if they are wildly different. When Oliver declares that he doesn’t know if he’ll “ever go home again” to see his family, Felix invites him to his family’s magnificent estate, Saltburn.

The trailer sets the scene for Saltburn to be an intoxicating display of wealth and privilege, where the Catton family – Felix’s shallow mother Elsbeth (Gone Girl’s Rosamund Pike), affected father James (Can You Ever Forgive Me?’s Richard E. Grant), wayward sister Venetia (Conversation With Friends Alison Oliver) and suspicious cousin Farleigh (Midsommar’s Archie Madekwe) – dress in suits and ties for dinner, throw wild parties, and get lost in Saltburn’s endless rooms.

While Oliver appears to get lost enjoying the Saltburn summer, the trailer also suggests that trouble lies ahead for all of the film’s characters. Oliver questions Elsbeth’s parenting, smashes a bedroom mirror, an appears to argue with Felix as the pair drive away from the sprawling estate.

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“You’re not leaving us. You’re not leaving Saltburn,” says Elsbeth, implying that now Oliver has entered Saltburn, he is trapped there. Or, perhaps, there’s just one way out – as teased by one scene in the new trailer showing a coffin.

It’s a dramatic, cinematic, and steamy look at one of the most anticipated films of the year, with a few hints that some of the characters might just get intimate with one another. In one scene, Oliver appears to be watching Felix through the door while he bathes.

The film’s director Emerald Fennell, also known for directing the Oscar-winning film Promising Young Woman, exclusively confirmed to PinkNews earlier this month that Saltburn is “absolutely” a queer film.

“This is a film entirely about desire, and that desire takes every conceivable manifestation, and it’s so important. Yeah, of course, [queerness is] part of the very fabric of the film,” she said.

The PinkNews review of Saltburn describes it as a “gloriously twisted” film that “needs to be seen to be believed”.

The review also describes the film as “simply hilarious”, with Rosamund Pike being its “comedic core”. In the brand new Saltburn trailer, the camp is already apparent – upon meeting Olvier for the first time, she fawns: “Oh what beautiful eyes! Oh how wonderful!”

When Felix responds: “Yeah, I told you he wasn’t a minger,” Elsbeth quips: “Oh, but you’re kind about everyone. You can’t be trusted.”

Saltburn is out in selected cinemas on 17 November, and all cinemas on 24 November.