US Edition
Meet the Brontë Superfans Who Despise Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights
Fennell’s film draws criticism for its shock style and graphic portrayal of women, prompting debate on whether authorship alone defines feminism, says New Statesman.
- The New Statesman ran a critical review of Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights in its 18 Feb 2026 issue, scrutinising the adaptation's style and claims.
- Her method deliberately disturbs viewers by staging uncomfortable sex and tangled consent, echoing Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, Fennell's previous works.
- Graphic bodily imagery in the film shows leeching, flowing blood, and sepsis-driven decline, while pop songs and conspicuous costumes create a glossy but dissonant tone culminating in a catastrophic third-act deluge.
- Critics and New Statesman reviewers question if Fennell's claim that `Everything I do is feminist` holds when many viewers reject authorship alone as feminist, amid audience pushback.
- In her heat-seeking fashion, Emerald Fennell, director habitually targets hot cultural arguments with lacquered visuals, and her recurring narrative leaves women trapped in fatal ends; contemporary film critics say this keeps feminist debate alive but limits her pioneering status.
11 Articles
11 Articles
Emerald Fennell Now Going Moor-To-Moor Trying To Shock People
"My sister Emily loved the moors," wrote Charlotte Brontë, in the introduction to a selection of Emily's poems published in 1850. Emily had died in 1848, and had not lived to see the publication of the second edition of Wuthering Heights, carefully revised by her older sister. "Flowers brighter than the rose bloomed in the blackest of the heath for her; out of sullen hollow in livid hillside her mind could make an Eden. She found in the bleak so…
Why does Emerald Fennell keep killing women off?
As the credits rolled in the hushed dark of Dalston’s Rio Cinema in east London, an awestruck cluster of women exchanged open-mouthed, horrified looks. Tears welled. Eyebrows arched in bafflement. No one was ready to stand. There was one woman responsible: Emerald Fennell, Britain’s most divisive filmmaker. This was the latest instalment in her cinematic universe: a visually lush tableau, fevered performances from the most celebrated actors of t…
The Independent
The Independent (US)Meet the Brontë superfans who despise Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights
The Margot Robbie-starring adaptation has divided critics and book enthusiasts alike
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 67% of the sources lean Left
Factuality
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