Red Scare – "Smothering Heights"

Podcast: Red Scare
Date: February 28, 2026
Hosts: Anna Khachiyan (A), Dasha Nekrasova (B)
Episode Theme:
A scathing, darkly comic takedown of Emerald Fennell's new film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, focusing on its failures in casting, aesthetics, adaptation choices, and cultural resonance. The hosts examine how the film reflects broader trends in contemporary female sexuality, feminism, and cinematic taste.

Episode Overview

In this episode, Anna and Dasha reunite for a "highly anticipated" and "timely" (00:24–00:37) review of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. Typically open to contrasting perspectives, both hosts are unequivocal in their contempt for the film. The conversation moves swiftly from a pointed critique of the movie’s artistic failings to a wider cultural postmortem, with frequent digressions into topics like sexual politics, aesthetics, and personal pet peeves. Riffing off each other in trademark Red Scare style—alternating between biting mockery, deadpan quips, and serious cultural analysis—the hosts deliver a review as memorable as their subject is forgettable.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Immediate Reactions: The Worst They've Seen

• Both Anna and Dasha loathe the film, finding "nothing redeemable."
  • “I don't have a single good thing to say.” – Dasha (01:14)
  • “There's literally nothing redeemable about this movie whatsoever.” – Dasha (01:56)
• Anna, who considers herself "a generous viewer," is surprised at her own negativity:
  • “I have pretty low standards, to be honest. And, like, I like to see the good in things.” (01:32)
• The film is compared unfavorably to other flawed works, making even the Softies or Yorgos Lanthimos look like "masterpieces." (02:41–03:00)

2. The Film’s Repulsiveness and Lack of Eroticism

• The film's attempt at sexuality is described as "repulsive, upsetting, ugly, vulgar, stupid." (03:17)
  • Anna compares watching it to "looking at X videos after you busted a nut," highlighting its antisexual and antinatalist vibe.
• Dasha: “The whole movie was like an ad for abortion. It was the most, like, antisexual, antinatalist, ugly, wretched film.” (03:47)
• The film is mocked for targeting "women who are on birth control, SSRIs, their clits are numb from using Hitachi wands." (04:05)
• Terms like "girl serfs" and "fem cell" echo the sense of cultural decline and psychic malaise exposed by the film. (04:23–04:46)

3. Aesthetic and Artistic Failings

• Set, costumes, and cinematography are universally panned:
  • “This also looked so bad. It just offended me.” – Anna (05:00)
  • “The set design was hideous…costumes were made of latex and crinkly plastic wrap.” – Dasha (05:13)
  • Groaning at a “nightie made out of cellophane” during a sex scene (05:38) signals a low point.
• Modern anachronism—attempts at Marie Antoinette/Sofia Coppola-style spectacle—are judged as "the worst I've ever seen." (21:03–21:24)

4. Adaptation Choices: Age, Tone, and Source Material

• The film fundamentally misunderstands Emily Bronte’s original work.
  • Dasha: “Emily Bronte understood [the characters] are meant to be unpleasant and terrible.” (06:14)
  • Anna: “What makes the characters redeemable is that they're young…Watching two middle aged people yell at each other in the rain is just pathetic.” (07:01)
• Aging up the characters ruins the story’s emotional tension; Margot Robbie (mid-30s, "too old and fat for the role") is completely miscast as Kathy, who should be a frail, troubled adolescent. (07:52–09:01)
• Chemistry between leads is "nonexistent and lacking." (09:07)
• The "epic" aspect is lost by omitting the multi-generational elements of the book. (09:35–10:26)

5. Cultural Critique: Pornography, Feminism, and Audiences

• The movie’s "overtly sexual but unsexy scenes" are called out for tastelessness, lack of suspense, and lack of artistry:
  • “It is HR friendly slop on the one hand, but on the other hand, it's just completely tasteless and vulgar.” (23:49)
• Modern sexual politics, "feminist y ass gross out" tropes, and "low-hanging fruit" like menstrual or body horror symbolism are derided:
  • “I'm a woman and I'm going there. I'm doing a menstrual symbolism. I'm doing abortive symbolism. I'm just like Frida Kahlo.” (32:55)
• The democratization of sex toys and sexual discourse is “lewd and offensive and, like, sex negative at the end of the day.” (24:15)
• Hostility toward contemporary audiences: The bar is "so low":
  • “The quality of the audience has declined.” (15:17)
• Reference to Fran Lebowitz’s AIDS-era observation: the death of connoisseurship led to dumber, broader art and reception. (15:38–18:49)
  • “Emerald Fennell is one of the few young women directors who hasn't been the victim of misogyny, though she should be.” – Dasha quoting a tweet (19:16)

6. Diversity Casting, Ethnicity, and Symbolism

• Anna and Dasha parse the "ethnically ambiguous" casting of Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) as workable, but find the diverse casting of the wider cast incoherent and undermining:
  • “If the whole cast is like, under lit people of color extras, you can't quote Steve Sailer. You can't cast someone more ethnically different than Heathcliff.” (26:18–26:39)
• The "Asian" Nelly is seen as a throwaway diversity move, lacking interiority or dramatic purpose. (28:04–29:32, 76:32)

7. Narrative and Character Critique

• “For all the blood, it is a very bloodless film.” (34:31)
• The central relationship has "no chemistry" and the story's intended eroticism becomes "bureaucratized," stripped of drama by modern notions of consent and safety.
  • “The affirmative consent that, like, traps it all in this, like, sterile, contractual…No one has to actually be, like, accountable for any pain because everyone's, like, consenting.” – Anna (34:11)
• The main character (Kathy) is described as a "non-entity": neither sympathetic nor detestable enough to generate audience investment. (62:31)

8. Cultural Trends and Generational Malaise

• The film becomes an avatar for contemporary female sexuality—“a good allegory for modern day female sexuality”—and the "hyperreal" fantasies and resentments of overworked, disengaged women. (36:17–36:34)
• Wuthering Heights as "movie version" of women with "hoeflation" expectations and anhedonic dissatisfaction. (74:17–74:50)
• Dasha: “I've never wanted a character to die more than I wanted Margot Robbie's cast.” (40:24)
• Modern culture is so degraded, "watching porn for two hours" would have been more interesting. (57:28–58:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Wuthering Heights was like, when you are... it felt like looking at, like, X videos, like, right after you, like, busted a nut... it was the most repulsive, upsetting, ugly, like, vulgar, stupid." – Anna (03:07)
• “The whole movie was like an ad for abortion. It was the most, like, antisexual, antinatalist, ugly, wretched film.” – Dasha (03:47)
• “Watching two middle aged people like yell at each other in the rain is just... pathetic.” – Anna (07:41)
• “She looks like she's never been calorie deficient or like even had a cold.” – Anna on Margot Robbie’s casting (08:33)
• “If I'm going to spike my cortisol, just like doom scroll Twitter. I don't need to spend two and a half hours doing this.” – Dasha (13:51)
• “I am like, if your movie doesn't make me care... shocking how totally congenitally incapable this movie was in drumming up any sympathy or relatability.” – Dasha (43:27)
• “I'm a woman and I'm going there. I'm doing a menstrual symbolism. I'm doing abortive symbolism. I'm just like Frida Kahlo, y'all.” – Anna (32:55)
• “For all the blood, it is a very, like, bloodless film.” – Dasha (34:31)
• “This is like the worst piece of art.” – Dasha (48:49)
• “Margot, it's not her fault. She just shouldn't have played this part. Apparently she wanted to. She's a producer, I think on it.” – Anna (41:32)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening Banter / Episode Setup: 00:24–01:16
• Immediate Negative Reaction: 01:14–03:00
• Sexual and Visual Repulsiveness: 03:04–05:26
• On the Book vs. Film: 06:12–12:07
• Aging Up Characters & Casting Issues: 07:01–09:01
• The Disaster of the Film’s Aesthetic: 05:00–05:45, 21:03–21:10, 52:29–54:27
• Fran Lebowitz on Connoisseurship / Audience Decline: 15:17–19:07
• Body Horror, Feminist Tropes, and "HR-Friendly" Sex: 22:17–24:08, 32:53
• Casting and Diversity Confusion: 24:15–26:39, 76:32–77:03
• On Modern Female Sexuality / Cultural Gooning: 36:17–37:38, 56:07–57:21
• On Approaching Adaptation Faithfully: 64:26–65:27, 76:09–76:32
• Chemistry and the Importance of Youthful Folly: 07:41–08:33, 65:27–65:34

Other Memorable Bits

• Anna’s riff on the film being set in “spirit Halloween haunted house” (53:47)
• Extended tangent on the democratization of sex toys and “office bean-flicking” (24:08–24:15, 36:34–36:59)
• Mocking the "consent" rhetoric that makes all the kink/sex scenes neutered: “It is bloodless…for all the blood.” (34:31)
• Moment of catharsis when the strong “Asian tiger mom queen” tells Margot Robbie’s Kathy she is “repulsive”: (41:08–41:19)

Tone and Language

The hosts’ language is irreverent, caustic, and deadpan. Their tone toggles between sardonic outrage, bemused disgust, and depressive cultural prophecy. The style is conversational, riff-heavy, darkly humorous, and densely referential, exemplifying the podcast’s unique blend of high-low, literary-political-cultural critique.

Summary for the Uninitiated

The hosts of Red Scare, Anna and Dasha, use Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights as a springboard for wide-ranging critique—not only do they shred the film for its artistic and adaptation failures, but they also interrogate the state of popular culture, audience taste, and modern sexual politics. They find the movie “repulsive, antisexual, incoherent, and ugly,” lambast the miscasting of Margot Robbie, and rue the flattening of literary complexity. Crystallizing their grievances are broader anxieties about female sexuality, the vacuity of contemporary art, and the decline of cultural standards. Their brutal, witty takedown serves as a cathartic bonding over shared dislike—an episode best enjoyed for its frankness, sharp turns of phrase, and unsparing cultural diagnosis.