Saltburn’s viral bathtub slurp isn’t the most shocking scene

Cameron Frew
Barry Keoghan in Saltburn and the grave scene

The cum-slurping bathtub scene in Saltburn has gone viral on TikTok – but it has “nothing” on the movie’s most shocking moment.

Directed by Promising Young Woman’s Emerald Fennell, the movie follows Oliver (Barry Keoghan), an intelligent loner who befriends Oxford University’s biggest stud: Felix (Jacob Elordi). Felix is not only incredibly wealthy but also sympathetic to Oliver’s traumatic home life.

As their first semester draws to a close, Felix invites his new pal to stay at his parents’ baroque, sprawling estate for the summer – and over the subsequent weeks, strange, unpleasant revelations ramp up, and Oliver’s infatuation with Felix (his body, his money… everything) intensifies beyond sanity.

This leads to a gag-inducing scene where Oliver drinks Felix’s ejaculate-polluted bathwater from the drain. Understandably, TikTok has become flooded with people’s reactions to it since the movie dropped on streaming – but it gets even worse later in the film. Spoilers to follow…

Saltburn’s viral bathtub scene isn’t the movie’s most shocking moment

This isn’t to say the bathtub scene isn’t shocking – it definitely is, and you’re not prudish for thinking so. But towards the end of the movie, we get something altogether grimmer: following Felix’s death, Oliver strips and humps his freshly buried grave in the rain.

“The bathtub scene was nothing compared to the grave scene and that’s all I’ll say about Saltburn,” one user wrote. “The tub scene in Saltburn is absolutely wild but it got nothing on that f**king grave scene,” a second wrote.

“Everyone’s been talking about the tub scene in #Saltburn but what they SHOULD be talking about is the grave scene… Because WHAT. THE. F**K,” a third tweeted. “After seeing #Saltburn, I GET why everyone’s on about the bath scene… but It’s not the most shocking scene? Surely the fresh grave scene is worse?! I gasped so loud,” a fourth wrote.

The scene wasn’t originally envisioned to be so graphic, but on the day of shooting, Keoghan and Fennell agreed that Oliver should “unzip.”

“She plants seeds, you know what I mean? She knows that they’re going to grow, these seeds, especially when she plants them with me. But it is a testament to Emerald and having that idea and me meeting it with, to be honest, no questions. I was totally on board for it,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

“For me, it wasn’t about fecking the grave, it was more about I don’t know what to do with this obsession; it’s making me confused and making me unhuman in a way. It was a total discovery for him, I think. And it was sad. It was very, very sad.”

Saltburn is streaming on Prime Video now, which you can sign up for here. You can check out our other coverage below:

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About The Author

Cameron is Deputy TV and Movies Editor at Dexerto. He's an action movie aficionado, '80s obsessive, and Oscars enthusiast. He loves Invincible, but he's also a fan of The Boys, the MCU, The Chosen, and much more. You can contact him at cameron.frew@dexerto.com.