YMMV / Saltburn

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • What motivated Oliver's pursuit of Felix? Saltburn? Money? Jealousy? Sexual attraction? Genuine love (however he might have understood it)? And does his motive change over the story: was he always after Felix's money and social advancement, or was he genuinely in love with him and he only refocused after he felt he was "forced" to kill Felix as a way to keep up the masquerade? If so, was keeping Saltburn a form of obsessively possessing Felix even postmortem, or was it always his goal? He claims the latter to Elspeth on her deathbed, and says that he hated the Cattons from the start, but he is a Compulsive Liar and this claim does not fully align with his obvious yandere fixation on Felix.
  • Duncan is an extremely mysterious character. He seems to see through Oliver immediately upon meeting him, but he never comments on him or tries to warn any of the Cattons, even after Felix's death or the Time Skip when Oliver comes to live in Saltburn with Elspeth, and presumably when her health declines. Why is this? Does he genuinely feel that he's not in a place to intervene as a servant? Is he motivated only by self-preservation and worried about losing his job? Or doesn't he care? Might he secretly dislike the Cattons as much as Oliver does?
• Award Snub: Although the film received several BAFTA nominations, it received none at the Oscars.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: A common complaint about the movie is that it's very obvious that there is something off about Oliver, even before he's revealed to be lying about growing up in poverty. The film spends a great deal of time outright showing Oliver coveting the Cattons' wealth, lying to and manipulating others, and engaging in depraved acts, and it even shows him alone with Felix and Venetia immediately before their deaths.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Oliver listening to Felix masturbate is already pretty shocking, but then he goes into the bathroom and slurps his cum out of the bathtub drain.
  • Elspeth's completely indifferent reaction to Pamela's death is already very surprising. However, it crosses the line from indifference to the blackest Black Comedy when Oliver expresses surprise about it and Elspeth replies: "She'd do anything for attention."
  • Oliver hysterically cries over Felix's grave after killing him. Then he unzips his pants and humps Felix's freshly-dug grave.
  • After killing Elspeth and taking Saltburn from her, Oliver is next shown fully nude, dancing enthusiastically through the halls of Saltburn to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder on the Dancefloor."
• Fanfic Fuel: How Oliver spent the fifteen years between being kicked out of Saltburn and seeing Elspeth again is unknown.
• Funny Moments: Upon a rewatch, there is something hilarious about Oliver saying that runny eggs make his stomach hurt when he goes on to drink Felix's bath water.
• Narm:
  • The Once More, with Clarity montage at the end of the film can come across as this, as Oliver boasts about framing Farleigh, killing Felix, and driving Venetia to suicide in a manner that seems like it's meant to be a shocking twist, even though the film heavily telegraphed his guilt. Though for some, it's less about the inevitable confession as much as just how long he'd been plotting this — even plotting their very first encounter.
  • In particular, the reveal that he was waiting for Elspeth in the coffee shop...as shown by the fact he'd been sat there pushing random buttons on his keyboard instead of writing, meaning the entire two-decade plan would have fallen apart if she'd looked at the screen. He couldn't come up with a short story or something?
• Nightmare Fuel: The brief but unsettling image of Venetia dead in a tub of her own blood, the top half of her head sticking out with her lifeless eyes exposed.
• Signature Scene: Two:
  • The scene where Oliver drinks Felix's bath water after the young aristocrat ejaculated into it became instantly notorious, to the point of It Was His Sled.
  • The scene where Oliver nakedly humps Felix's grave is going a similar way.
• Spiritual Successor: To past stories of aristocratic social climbing, such as Brideshead Revisited or The Talented Mr. Ripley. Similarities to Teorema have not gone unnoticed, either.
• Squick: The aforementioned bath water drinking, not to mention the scene where Oliver eats out Venetia on her period, may make some sensitive viewers squirm. Not to mention the horrifying sight of Venetia lying dead in a bathtub of bloody water and Oliver humping the fresh garden soil of Felix's grave.

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