Updated Feb. 15, 2026, 7:54 p.m. ET
LOS ANGELES − Oh, the girls came undone, all right.
It’s the morning after I invited 18 friends to rent out a private movie theater on Feb. 13, aka Galentine’s Day, to watch Emerald Fennell’s unhinged take on “Wuthering Heights,” and I’m pretty sure everyone woke up with a Jacob Elordi hangover.
Or an actual one from all the Valentine’s Day-themed specialty drinks flowing at the bar. A gin-based “Love in Bloom” or tequila-based “Strawberry Kiss” to go with our viewing experience of what was marketed as “the greatest love story of all time.” Although that’s up for debate to many who have also read the 1847 Gothic novel written by Emily Brontë. If you know, you know.
But on a warm Friday afternoon, during a 3:30 p.m. showing in broad daylight, to be exact, 18 women were indoors hooting, hollering, and in the same breath, too stunned to speak every time Elordi − in all of his 6-foot-5 glory − graced the big screen.
Jacob Elordi in ‘Wuthering Heights’ is ‘what dreams are made of’
“This is what dreams are made of,” sang one of my friends to the tune of Hilary Duff’s song during one of the first scenes of the Oscar-nominated actor (“Frankenstein”) portraying Heathcliff.
“That’s right, daddy,” quipped another as Elordi gripped Robbie’s mouth shut as they secretly watched Joseph (Ewan Mitchell) have sex with a maid (played by Amy Morgan).
Another added, “This is what women want!” when Elordi’s Heathcliff and Robbie’s Catherine finally shared a steamy kiss.
Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” and its casting of Elordi opposite Margot Robbie as the “half savage and hardy, and free” Catherine Earnshaw has driven the literary community mad since the teaser trailer last fall, when we finally caught a glimpse of Elordi as our tumultuous and toxic fictional lover boy in action. The “Saltburn” director’s vision for the novel quickly drew criticism for whitewashing Heathcliff’s character (who has only been played by a Black actor in Andrea Arnold’s 2011 film adaptation).
The heavily flawed and complex character, who in the book is described at length as an “it” and “gipsy brat” that is “as dark almost as if it came from the devil” is, in Fennell’s reimagining of the novel, portrayed by an Australian actor as a rugged and beautiful man to fawn over.
Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” the only novel she wrote in her life, also includes intense themes of domestic abuse and coercive control, as both Catherine and Heathcliff wage psychological warfare on each other, their partners, and then pass down more of that trauma to their children and their children’s children. Much of this isn’t included in Fennell’s version, and early on, many complained the movie seemed to romanticize the abuse in the book.
So, uh, why did I invite 18 women to watch this kinky 2026 version set against a Charli XCX soundtrack when the book is actually one of the most dysfunctional love stories I’ve ever read?
‘Wuthering Heights’ can both be deranged and divine
To borrow from Robbie during a recent interview with USA TODAY, “It’s complicated and juicy.”
As a teen, reading about the intense and death-defying love between Heathcliff and Catherine was something. I mean, on the page, Heathcliff’s lines are simply chilling: “You said I killed you. Haunt me, then. Be with me always. Take any form. Drive me mad.”
Ever since, I’ve collected different editions of the novel. To anyone who will listen, I’ll recommend the 2009 PBS adaptation of the novel starring Tom Hardy and his real-life wife Charlotte Riley, and I’ll try to persuade you to read the book.
Naturally, the movie’s Valentine’s Day weekend release and the collective thirst for Elordi was the perfect marriage of many of my interests: my gals, romance films with unhappy endings, literature, a made-up holiday all about celebrating sisterhood and friendship, and, well, an excuse to stare at a cute celebrity for nearly two hours.
That’s how the “Feral 4 Elordi” viewing party on Galentine’s Day was born, because “Wuthering Heights” as a reading or visual experience can be both deranged and divine.
In Fennell’s version, we’re quickly transported into a fever dream of sorts, and we realize it’s about to be a wild ride. All there is to do, sometimes, is know in your heart of hearts that a nuanced piece of literature and a provocative and deviant piece of pop culture can exist alongside each other without one diminishing the other.
We can have both Fennell and Brontë’s versions of this torturous story.
We can gasp and giggle every time Elordi moves but a finger, we can clap and cheer as Robbie’s Catherine pleasures herself out in the moors as Heathcliff looks on, and we can hold the impact and enduring influence of Brontë’s novel that deals with race, class and gender.
As Elordi told USA TODAY, “That’s the beauty of ‘Wuthering Heights,’ and that’s what Brontë did with the book. She was exposing something at a time when everyone − especially women − was so constricted in what they could feel and say.”
In a dark theater, we were transported to the wild Yorkshire moors of Brontë’s world, most for the first time, and let out the raw, unfiltered reactions to this unwieldy “love” story that we’d only express among other women. Because, as Nicole Kidman once said, “We come to this place for magic.”