Saltburn director Emerald Fennell says she thinks the movie’s notorious bathtub scene has had such a giant response as a result of it’s “both diabolical and revolting, and unbelievably relatable”.

It was the “first scene I imagined when thinking about the movie,” she mentioned.

The psychological thriller, which stars Barry Keoghan as a scholar who’s fixated on a rich college good friend, has brought about a stir on social media.

It obtained 5 Bafta nominations on Thursday, together with finest British movie.

The darkish comedy turned an web sensation after it was launched on Amazon Prime in December.

Filled with an abundance of viral scenes, folks took to social media to share their tales of sitting down to observe it with their shocked households through the holidays.

Writer and director Fennell instructed the BBC’s tradition editor Katie Razzall the social media buzz had come about as a result of it is a “gothic romance”.

“I think it really tunes into this emotional need we have that is quite unfulfilled – the really operatic, heightened emotion; a heightened sense of the erotic and of love and of hate,” she mentioned.

“I just think it’s something that we’ve been missing for a while.”

The bathtub scene has turn out to be notably infamous. Fennell mentioned it was “at the heart of the film”, and was “so powerful because it is so sexy”.

She added: “I think any of us who have been in the grips of absolutely locus desire know that feeling, and so I think that’s why it’s been so effective.”

The scene sees Keoghan’s character Oliver slurp up used bathwater containing the sperm of his good friend Felix, performed by Jacob Elordi.

Keoghan and Elordi have each been nominated for Baftas for his or her roles, whereas co-star Rosamund Pike is up for finest supporting actress.

Fennell, who received two Baftas for her 2021 movie Promising Young Woman, mentioned she was “so delighted” with Saltburn’s nominations, including that it was “the most exciting thing in the world because we all love the film so much and we had an entirely British crew”.

The movie has additionally been credited with bringing Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 music Murder on the Dancefloor again into the charts after it options in Keoghan’s eye-popping nude finale.

Saltburn obtained the identical variety of Bafta nominations because the top-grossing movie of 2023, Barbie, which Fennell described as a “genius piece of film making that is so beautifully crafted”.

Oppenheimer leads the Bafta nominations with 13, adopted by Poor Things with 11.