SALTBURN Grave Scene Explained & Why He Did It 

Which scene did you think was worse? The grave scene or the bathtub scene? Comment your thoughts below!

He didn't love Felix, he wanted to BE Felix.

He wanted to POSSESS Felix. By drinking his bath water and screwing the grave, he infuses Felix’s essence. Like a warrior who eats a combatants heart, he BECOMES Felix with those actions

I honestly think he did love Felix and possibly had planned to get rid of everyone else to have the estate with him but when Felix turned on him Ollie had to put his feelings aside and off him too. I think the graveyard scene shows us his remorse because there was no such scenes with the death of the others in the family

I think Ollie did love Felix - but in his own sick and twisted sense of "love". It is not so much love for Felix as a person - but for Felix as a "concept": the rich, attractive guy to whom everyone feels drawn to. A popular und priviledged, well accepted member of society. By drinking his $emen in the bathwater, by drinking the blood of Venetia - who is Felix' sister - Ollie tries to "get a piece" of Felix, to "transform" himself into him. However, Felix discovers his lies and thus, rejects Ollie. By this time, Ollie knows that he must take Felix' place if he wants to remain in this sphere of priviledge, money and popularity. And so he kills Felix and starts impersonating him by wearing his perfume as well as his underwear. Some maybe slightly aware part of Ollie seems to show dedication and whorship to Felix by grinding on his grave, some sort of lust and desire. Deep down, Ollie knows that Felix is forever gone - that there will never be another Felix and he hates him for it. One more time he tries to "take a piece" of Felix. But he's gone. I think that is why Ollie sobs and truly mourns Felix. It's a mixture of adoration, lust, whorship even - but also hate and envy. Ollie is nuts :D

The movie paints Felix as someone who is shallow and views friends as disposable and gets bored of them easily. But its actually Ollie that was like this the whole time

I believe you got it wrong. Ollie was truly craving love and acceptance from Felix. He killed Felix out of necessity not choice. Felix surprised him with seeking out his mother which exposed all his lies. Ollie killed everyone who was in his way. His objective was to become everything to Felix by eliminating those who would stop him from his ultimate goal. The dance in the end reflects the change in desire once Felix had died.

The grave, the blood and the bathtub scene were speechless. I stayed there watching with my eyes WIDE OPEN thinking WTF is going on! But, the scene that made me so uncomfortable too was the scene were they were all having lunch after Felix's death. It was so cold, so so cold and hard to watch too. It felt like they were hiding everything and anything under the carpet, their feelings were so bottled up, still you felt like nothing was really there at the moment. This was a film that quite impressed me, I didnt know what to expect, yet it exceeded my expectations. So beautifully filmed too, the scenes were divine, the interpretations of Barry and Jacob, even the other actors were so on point and lets not talk about the settings. So exquisite. Amazing film, though I recommend watching it by yourself.

I think it was a weird way of conquering Felix kinda like how dogs will pee, or the Americans with the flag on the moon. He wanted to be him more than anything

For me, it was the bathtub scene. I winced and crawled inside myself. I think it was because the bathtub scene was one of the shocking firsts in the movie for the audience and personally, thats why it was more gross to me than the grave scene wbich wasnt as graphic and by then the unhinged nature of it all was already to be expected!

This movie haunts me dude deserves an Oscar

He seemed to be intent on hanging out and being part of a popular crowd but only became part of it out of pity and at the end he is completely alone again.

Yea, he had a thing for felix. But his goal from the beginning was to make Saltburn his. So him fucking the grave is him celebrating his first steps towards making Saltburn his. He was literarly planting his seed in Saltburn, making it his.

This is a scene that I couldn’t play for a million bucks!

I think he did it for the same reason he slurped up the bath water: shock value.

Thank you for posting. Happy New Year!

I don’t see this narrative of him being a psychopath. He is much closer to a sociopath. It’s a big misconception just because someone is a serial killers they are a psychopath. Oliver showed far too much emotion in his behaviour and also really did care about being seen. A psychopath does not have these characteristics. I think it’s a big one to see the homage to Wuthering Heights grave scene. Always nice to hear people discuss these things though especially like a film like this!

I think Ollie loved him in a twisted, obsessive way. He wanted to own him but he was going to lose him so he killed him and took everything he had. This scene was the only way to be with him, by stealing it as he did everything else.

Great explanation thumb up 👍. I think if the corpse was around he will do it to the body, not because he is necrophiliac or a serial killer, but to get his intimate moment he was gagging for at the bathtub scene.

I think deep down he loved Felix. That party night when Felix made clear that he won’t have him then he took that step.

The grossest scene was when he licked the blood from the sister's period drainage. The grave thing was weird but not gross.

It’s crazy how a house full of servants didn’t see or notify the family as to what Ollie might have been. Even when he was kicked out by the dad, the help looked at him like “ah hah, plan didn’t work”.

I think Ollie wanted to be Felix and that (the grave scene) was his way of taking ownership of Felix's being. I don't think Ollie was able to love others. He was a rare introvert almost cut off from the world around him. He was obsessed with Felix's persona and wished to consume it. IMO

great analysis

This movie reminds me “The Talented Mr. Ripley”

This is wrong about Ollie standing away from the family. That was the father's decision from the first scene of the funeral day: when Ollie was going to go with the family to wherever was next, the father stopped him, because they were going to do a saying goodbye ritual as a family. He watched them from a distance to respect that but also because Felix taught him that ritual, which they don't know that Felix had, but that wouldn't have changed that they wanted to do it as a family. Thats just because family's like to put the wedge btwn 'outsiders' and themselves for distinction when comes to events, to feel like they are indeed a family. But yea, that part was out of Ollies control bcz the dad is in charge, etc. You can see the move for youself. That tub scene was much. the worm-in-ground scene was very complex than was described tho. Both was just shock value ultimately.

Had a real Tom Ripley Vibe.

YES PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY

I mean….red flag when your only friend at Uni is Aemond Targaryen 🌝

I was today years old when I learned that Saltburn and Brightburn are just the first two connected installments in the 'Burn Cinematic Universe.

Did Oliver know from the start that Felix lived at saltburn or did he just know about his family’s wealth and tried to maneuver into it ?

Emerald is a brilliant director , the film itself is like a maze, so many different routes / narratives . It’s got a Kubrick feel about it .

I have a theory this is American Psycho if Patrick Bateman killed the people that cared for him.

It felt more figurative than literal to me! It didn't feel that shocking as many shocking stuff had already happened to diminishing marginal utility! 😂

I do not share your opinion, I don`t think any of those scenes were disgusting or bad, on the contrary they were brilliant, to show his obsession for Felix.

Best scene in the entire movie tbh

real weird moviewatchers were expecting him to get a bit more dirtier lol….

I thought the movie was over when I looked up on RU-vid the movie explained and a clip of Venetia in the bath bloody had me so confused because I wasn’t done the movie and I didn’t understand the movie

Ah yes, the scene where Oliver says: “It’s saltburning time!” And then saltburns all over Felix’s grave. Truly one of the most movies of all time.

Great movie, great acting. Great story

I Think Oliver did really love Felix and lying aside I think he also respected him to because notice how, to get what he wanted Oliver had the capacity to easily manipulate and seduce Venetia and Farleigh and was even able to whisper sweet nothings/compliments to Elspeth to win her over Felix on the other hand Oliver revered him as like this figure that was above him he lied but he never tried to come on or seduce Felix the way he did the others maybe he thought Felix wouldn’t be into it and it would ruin their friendship and all he worked for, but I would like to think that he wanted Felix to come to that conclusion of having mutual romantic feelings for him with out the need of any sort of outside manipulative factors.

I've heard people say this films makes you sick to the stomach, I've watched it and I tell you what I've regretted wasting 2hours on this, nothing is gross about this film, stuff like that happens in real life.

For me, the worst scene was when he pulled Elspeth's breathing tube out. The bathtub scene didn't bother me really (except the tongue in the plug hole) & the grave scene only bothered me because he was crying so loudly as he did it. Something about his crying at the same time made me feel disturbed I can also never hear that hymn again without thinking of Ollie 💀

I think Oliver wanted to eat him, consume him, and magically be him

It's probably true that he was in love with Felix but one thing is clear,pretty clear he wanted to be Felix drinking his bath & fuckin his grave was literally his ways of turning into him Either way,solid film with amazing cinematography and the acting by Barry & Jacob is fantastic 🛐

People use Cassie and Maddie from Euphoria to describe “the reality of having an envious friend who wants to be you”… no. In my experience Saltburn told it better. Some people truly become obsessed with you and want to see you burn all because you are happy. Stay safe y’all.

Ollie wanted to be Felix, that’s true. But I think Felix wanted to be Ollie. And when he realizes Ollie isn’t who he said he was, there wasn’t any reason for Felix to keep him around. Neither really loved each other. They loved what the other represented

The bath was soft compared to this scene. The movie is amazing, I loved all. The cast, the director cinematopraphy, music. The mansion itself is a character.

i think it’s more of him being infatuated with the land bc that’s all he ever wanted and the human were just accessories just a theory.

Where did u guys watch this??

i didn't find either the bathtub scene or the grave scene "disgusting" maybe that makes me a sociopath

I never saw the movie. Is it similar to the Talented Mr. Ripley?

I think the issue is that this just wasnt' a well written film. The best parts are replicas of other known movies, then you have the sexually provocative moments (this) and finally the murder twist which was beyond cheesy and formulaic.

Hang on that grace isn’t in the grave yard when you see it at the funeral it’s surrounded by a wall is this an actual scene or in his head like breaking the mirror may be

This scene grossed me out so much and left me disturbed. The movie was ok up until this point.

timestamp?

what was with the antlers tho?

What's all the fuss about? he wanted to merge himself with Felix...I found this scene really stirring...almost moving. he wanted to BE him.

How did he killed Felix?

totally wuthering heights

Literal planting the seed

The whole scene was an ad lib by Barry. The director was like, “let’s see where he is going with this”. The crew was very taken aback. It shows how good of an actor he is that he could get into the mind of his character.

the twist caught me off guard

Most of thestuff in the film doesn't really make sense. Just fantasy. Not even worth it to try explain. Some storytellers are so good it feels real but it is still a story. And this was not great storytelling. But great art work. Fun movie

although..... if Oliver loved Felix so much then why did he kill him?

I wonder if this guy understands that "Ollie", is fictional?

Oliver character is normal he just fine idk what y’all taking bout weirdos

me when I see

What the fuck is this movie about

Get over it, he was gay and this grave scene is a perverse act of love. It is a queer film. Derek Jarman territory. Too much trying to excuse the fact that he was gay. ' Wuthering Heights ' is disgusting if you analyse it.

Just utter crap This thinking they would add to anything apart from online spin. Drama school student stuff.

are you guys fr? is this normal for you to watch? get help bro.