Warning: Spoilers ahead for Saltburn. It’s easily one of the most divisive movies to be released this year. If you’ve watched it and still have questions (or you’re Googling before it’s over), the question on everyone’s lips is how did Venetia die in Saltburn. Jacob Elordi takes on the role of the aloof, privileged hot boy; Barry Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, whose infatuation with Felix consumes him (and, as the film would have it, he consumes it). Venetia, meanwhile, is Felix’s sister—marvellously played by Alison Oliver (who we’ll refer to as Alison to avoid confusion with Keoughan’s character).
Related Stories
Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, Oliver finds himself drawn into the world of the charming aristocrat Felix, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten. “It gets under your skin,” director Emerald Fennell told Variety.
“We just want to make something that makes people feel something. I want to make stuff that you go and sit in a dark room full of strangers and you don’t know what you’re going to feel and you don’t know where you’re going to be probed. And everyone has a different take on it. Some people are screaming, some people are squealing, Some people are turned on, some people are freaked out and some are furious,” . “Some people don’t really care. What you want is for people to spill out into the street and want to go and have a drink and talk about it.”
It’s a twisted, modern Gothic tale about priviledge and desire that ends in tragedy for some, and dancing nude for another. With that said, and if you’re not clear on how the film ends, here’s how Venetia died in Saltburn because it’s a little ambiguous. Trigger warning for self-harm and suicide.
How does Venetia die in Saltburn?
Venetia dies by an apparent suicide after her brother Felix’s shocking death. But let’s backtrack a bit because there’s a lot to unpack.
Oliver develops an unhealthy obsession with Felix after encountering him at Oxford. Felix is cool and effortless, as is everyone in his orbit. Oliver, meanwhile, is dowdy and shy—an unpopular dork drawn to Felix’s aura. In an effort to garner attention and sympathy, Oliver tells Felix his father is dead and his mother is a hopeless drug addict. Oliver says he’ll never go home again and Felix invites him to vacation with him at his family estate, Saltburn.
When Oliver arrives, he meets the Catton family and hangers on. Sir James (Richard E. Grant) and Lady Elspeth Catton (Rosamund Pike); Venetia; his half-American, relatively, poor cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe); and a family friend Pamela (Carey Mulligan), who has long outstayed her welcome at the estate.
Venetia is vulnerable and becomes Oliver’s first target, described by her mother as “masochist and has an eating disorder”. He uses that information to take with him to the next scene, where Oliver and Venetia have sex outside. “It’s not the right time of the month,” she tells him. “Lucky I’m a vampire,” he says in response.
He tells “Venetia that her body, rather than something disgusting, is in fact beautiful and arousing. Menstrual blood still is something that people are squeamish about,” Fennell reflected to TIME. “But I think actually, it’s an incredibly effective sex scene because he’s worshiping her body, and everything that her body produces, and that’s not something that anyone has ever done for her before.”
But Felix finds out about Oliver and Venetia’s little tryst and puts a stop to it. Some audiences found somewhat of an incesty vibe to Venetia and Felix’s relationship that is only ever implied; perhaps a nod to old aristrocatic traditions of, ahem, maintaining the family bloodline.
Upon discovering Oliver’s deception—that his family home is very wholesome and normal—Felix tells Oliver that he wants nothing to do with him anymore and casts him out.
Drunkenly, Oliver follows Felix into the property’s hedge maze to find him having sex with someone in the center. They argue. Felix tells Oliver to stay away from him. “I just gave you what you wanted, like everyone else does,” begs Oliver. “Everyone puts on a show for Felix. So I’m sorry my performance wasn’t good enough. … I just need you to understand how much I f—ing love you.”
“You make my blood run cold,” Felix tells him and in that moment, it’s clear Oliver has decided that if he can’t have Felix, no one can. He hands him a bottle of champagne, Felix takes a huge swig and his dead body is found the following morning.
After Felix’s death—which is initially suspected to be an accidental drug overdose but we find out later that Oliver poisoned him—Oliver moves on to Venetia. He finds her sitting in Felix’s bath after a day of drinking heavily and she begins to probe him on why he’s still hanging around the house even though he and Felix only knew each other for 6 months.
“I think you’re a moth. Quiet, harmless, drawn to shiny things. Banging up against the window, just desperate to get in. Well, you’ve done it now. You’ve made your holes in everything. You’ll eat us from the inside out,” she says, then notices Oliver is wearing Felix’s aftershave. She grabs him by the scuff of his collar, having connected the dots: “You are a f—cking freak,” she sneers. “I’ll bet you’re wearing his underwear, too.”
The next scene, Oliver is back in his apparent confessional. “I broke her completely; she said it herself. She couldn’t live without him,” he says, as the camear cuts to Venetia’s dead body in the bath. It’s later revealed in the movie’s closing cameo that Oliver supplied her the razor blades by placing them on the bath’s edge.
“I think she’s quite a bored person. She has a lot in a material sense, but I think is probably feeling like she’s lacking in terms of a lot of, maybe, emotional needs. She’s a very lonely person, I think,” actor Alison told Collider.
Saltburn is available to stream on Prime Video.
Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission from the sale.
ncG1vNJzZmirpK65pq%2FArKueql6YvK57xKernqqklravucSnq2ispmK6sMLInqpoaWZthXd%2BkGifqK9dq7KvsdOimGacmZp6tK3LrZmuqp5k