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A vampire has to be invited into your home before it can enter. Those are the rules. Without your invitation they can only view and plan from a distance. One of the more terrifying aspects of the ancient lore is that you are the one that allows this blood sucking creature into your home. Emerald Fennell knows this and while her follow up to 2020’s “Promising Young Woman” (her feature debut) may not seem like a vampire film, that is precisely what SALTBURN is; a vampire film through and through. Much like her previous film it may be hard to watch SALTBURN and not see the heavily inspired influence flow through. One could even call this “The Talented Mr. Saltburn.” But while the Matt Damon movie might be the basis SALTBURN is a pop star driven party of perversion, where all any form of ramification feels all too late and punishment is just a road to more gain. It also doesn’t hurt that the film is horny as hell. A sun soaked summer of body fluids, desire and devious satisfaction. Heightened by a committed cast that can sell absurd lines that only the 1 percent of the 1 percent actually deliver in real life, SALTBURN doesn’t just become the party movie of the year, it is a dramatic step up for Fennell as a director. Here is a film more assured and less afraid to admit to their inspirations. In doing so it allows and façade to fall down and allow the gates of SALTBURN to be opened forever. Step inside. Come inside. Just know it has much more in store for you and not all will meet their desired ending.

Oliver (Barry Keoghan) is tired of not being invited. A shy but always lurking in the corner Oxford student arrives for the 2006 school year. The year has just begun but already Oliver knows his status. A friend informs him that they are NFI members, (not fucking invited). But this isn’t enough for orphaned boy Oliver with his timid “please sir can I have some more” attitude he observes the posh crowd decked in a mixture of Brooks Brothers and Abercrombie & Fitch fit that you can tell reeks of soaked in cologne. Their leader is polo wearing Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) who is never out of Oliver’s sight even if he does not know it. Much like a schoolboy crush, Oliver stays in the corner with a few hellos as they pass by until a meet cute chance allows Oliver to be of assistance to Felix. Their first encounter feels one sided even if Felix proclaims he’s obsessed with Oliver taking his awkward kindness to his advantage. Keoghan and Elordi feel like two different worlds in both presence and performance. In other films it could be disastrous, but here their difference in stature both physically and mentally is played well where anyone who has ever dreamed of doting over their crush becomes a reality. That may be where the similarities stop though. Keoghan as Oliver plays it as a boy lost at sea that somehow always wanted to find himself in trouble. As the two get closer and Oliver fights off the rejection of Felix’s best friend Farleigh (a hysterical Archie Madekwe) Fennell’s satirical script comes to life as we watch what may appear as two friends, but rather one friend knowing his status is light years above the other and therefore sees the friend as a lost puppy. And what do we do with lost puppies, well we bring them home to show off to everyone. Welcome to Saltburn Oliver.

There is a novel like feeling to SALTBURN with the college year being a prologue to its Saltburn mansion chapters. Afterall once you see the landscape of the Saltburn mansion it is impossible to view this as anything less than a gothic novel. If Saltburn was on a cliff you’d practically becalling this “Wuthering Heights,” as the gates open wide and the butler who looks more like a skeleton greets you. But this is the world of the Catton’s made up of Felix, his sister Venetia (Alison Oliver), his father Sir James (Richard E. Grant) and their outlandish mother Elspeth (a flamboyant and cynical Rosamund Pike stealing every scene with just a look). Much like Felix (and unlike Farleigh who is also spending the summer at Saltburn) they are smitten with Oliver’s plainness. Elspeth acknowledges his kind eyes but is more intrigued by how boring and tame he looks. In a time where Succession, The Crown and even Billions dominated television you can practically feel the Catton spin-off being developed. It basically already has. But thankfully Fennell and her cast are so committed to the bit that any re-interpretation comes off as original. There is nobody like Elspeth even if there are actually in reality thousands of people like her abusing everyone with their words. But none of this bothers Oliver, the plans of his desires have already been set in motion. He may feel out of place, but Fennell and cinematographer Linus Sandgren’s camera work fixated on Oliver’s face it is clear he has made it inside. He’s not leaving anytime soon. If SALTBURN is a vampire film that Oliver is our Dracula. Seductive and ready to suck this family dry of their pleasures, wealth and maybe even lives.

SALTBURN even with its tension filled themes of obsession and desire knows how to be a hangout out film. Basing it in the summer of 2007 allows for some truly funny 2000’s landmarks that bring you right back. There’s the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows book that gets tossed around as well as pop songs taken straight from your iPod nano. (A specific MGMT needle drop requires instant toe tapping). The teens spend their time watching “Superbad” and of course karaoke performing Flo Rida’s “Low.” These playful moments (specific to their economic status) feel like a dream state of a time decades ago when barely 20 years apart. Might as well be thousands. But everything seems fun when you’re unaware of what you’ve welcomed inside. Even if it’s apparent where some of Oliver’s intentions are going it becomes a devious delight to see him get there. Oliver bounces around from one person to the next until he can actually find someone to win over. Scenes involving him and Alison are sure to make anyone squeamish, and his behind the door observations of Felix only get more vicious and bizarre by the moment. One can say this film does exactly what you’d expect it to with the way Oliver treats anything Felix touches, but if you’re mind already went there perhaps that speaks to your own mind when your alone with your naughty thoughts. If nothing else Fennell is saying “I know you get horny, but are you on this level?”

The darkness that resides over SALTBURN is always existent and as the film finds its way to more deadlier events there is a curious look at if we even care what happens to these people. It is less than the lack of empathy for these absurdly wealthy individuals, but more so we even recognize them as pawns in a greater game, and we really want to see it all play out. In doing so that means being okay with sacrificing others for our own entertainment. Everyone has been put in the “Not fucking invited” club but is it a vengeful desire that fuels Oliver or is there true love for Felix that can only be expressed by giving and receiving pain onto others even if through pleasure. Fennell didn’t have the answers in her first film and she definitely does not here as well, but that this time around that lack of certainty is better displayed. The refusal to commit entirely allows for a more sinister atmosphere that can be laughed at, (her first film’s comedy didn’t work for a reason). What helps even more is when you have Barry Keoghan so infatuated with the role that it seeks beyond anything he has done yet. An actor known for playing weird and dangerous boys, Keoghan never hides this in Oliver no matter how timid he plays him at times. It isn’t that Oliver finds himself at Saltburn but rather Saltburn is a vessel for Oliver to fully display himself. And that he does, in more than one way. SALTBURN doesn’t choose its best moments for last, but it certainly wants you to never forget Keoghan or anything he has to offer.

SALTBURN is destined to be talked about by those that desire to see it, and even more so by those repulsed by it (shoutout to the several walkouts in my screening), but thankfully it never seeks out to be the Film Twitter meme movie of the year. Instead it is a display of growth from a promising young director whose ability to blend bubblegum pop star behavior into the deadliest of games. The kind of film that you so want to be invited to, and even when things go bad you still hope you are on the guest list for the next one. Because being invited means you’re inside and once you come inside you are going to want to do it all over again and again.

A–

SALTBURN WILL BE RELEASED IN SELECT THEATERS NOVEMBER 17 AND EVERYWHERE THIS THANKSGIVING