The rise of the house of Oliver: property and gothicism in Saltburn

By re-creating the Gothic trope of the visit to the rich friend’s house, Saltburn (2023) exemplifies how matters of property and class may carry cinematic Gothicism outside the realm of the (literal) haunted house. Post-modern in its constant reference to literary works from which it appropriates plot and characters, the film offers a transgressive turn by following the rise – not the fall – of a common man as the owner of the house he desires. Given the low social mobility in the society portrayed, his achievement updates the Gothic tradition of establishing a new order to an old, disrupted environment. The present study examines this hypothesis based on sociological and literary sources regarding matters of class and property, and by drawing a parallel between the film and Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”.