Every Family Seemed To Be Shocked by ‘Saltburn’ This Holiday Season

Going home for the holidays is always an interesting time. This time around, it seemed everyone decided to celebrate the holidays by making their family watch Saltburn—you know, the movie with Barry Keoghan in the bathtub?

I don’t know what is more chaotic: Saltburn or everyone making their grandparents watch it without a single warning label in sight. Personally, I told my mother all about the movie before I told her to venture into the great wide open on her own with her boyfriend, because I didn’t feel like fielding questions for the entire night. That’s the way I chose to Saltburn the night away. I think I was right for that move. The rest of the world? They chose to make their Saltburn adventures a little different.

Many were watching the movie with the family gathered around, making a show of it. I saw one group who had them all drinking cocktails out of bathtub-shaped cups before starting the movie. Why? Because 2023 broke us to the point where we said “let’s torture mom and dad before we eat some Christmas ham” as a collective unit. Everyone took to the couch to share watching Barry Keoghan dance together.

It’s been incredible seeing how many of these videos have popped up. It’s not just one family getting Saltburned. It is many all unknowingly watching the Emerald Fennell film and yelling at the one family member who convinced them all to do it.

Look, is it fair to trick your family into watching Oliver Quick take out the Catton family one at a time? Yes, actually, it is. That’s the holiday cheer that I am personally looking forward to each and every year. May we always have a Saltburn to watch during the holidays.

Just a little bit of bath water to start the year off right

We are all maybe a bit too obsessed with Saltburn. (If that is a problem, don’t tell me.) From having candles that smell like Jacob Elordi’s bath water to many posting videos dancing to “Murder on the Dance Floor” to celebrate the New Year, we have all been broken in the best possible way by Fennell’s work.

Grandpa probably didn’t need to be included in the viewing process, but maybe he really loved Promising Young Woman? You never know what Pop Pop is up to.

So our collective decision to torture our parents? I love it. Look, they deserve to watch movies like Saltburn, mainly because they won’t watch them on their own, and it is a great movie! Why not make them watch an instant classic? Anyway, I think this is one of those cultural moments that we’ll think back on fondly. 2023 was the year where we all dressed up in theaters for Barbie and Oppenheimer, and then we forced our moms to watch Saltburn and question what went wrong with us over the Christmas break. Honestly? What a way to end the 2023 season, am I right?

(featured image: MGM)