
What Parents Need to Know About TikTok Trend Inspired by R-Rated SALTBURN
By Movieguide® Staff
Reality star Scott Disick just posted a video of daughter Penelope, 11, participating in a TikTok trend inspired by the R-rated movie SALTBURN.
“SALTBURN is the tense, disturbing story of an Oxford student named Oliver, whose infatuation with his classmate, Felix Catton, turns obsessive. The obsession begins when Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s manor. Oliver sees the sex-fueled, wealthy lifestyle of the Catton family as a means to improve his circumstances. So, he manipulates them into tearing their own lives apart. Finally, Oliver comes up with a truly devious, evil plan to manipulate Felix’s mother so he can steal the family’s manor for himself,” Movieguide®’s review reads.
Disick’s video shows Penelope participating in the “SALTBURN trend.”
“Fans of the movie have started the ‘Saltburn trend’ on TikTok, showcasing their wealth, which may be confusing or distasteful to those unfamiliar with the film,” GameRant explained.
In the video, “[Penelope] ran around the house recreating the film’s unforgettable final scene, in which Barry Keoghan’s character dances around a mansion to the Sophie Ellis-Bextor earworm ‘Murder on the Dancefloor,’” PEOPLE reported.
A group of young friends, including cousin North West—Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s daughter—follow Penelope as they video the recreation.
“Huge Saturday night 4 me with the girls,” Disick captioned the post.
However, as innocent as this video might seem, kids should not view SALTBURN.
The scene that inspired the trend “shows Oliver dancing naked around the Cattons’ mansion while ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ plays. The song choice is also apt as Oliver had just killed Felix’s mother, Elspeth (Rosamund Pike) while she was in a coma.”
The movie promotes a “Very strong hedonistic, self-centered, immoral, pagan worldview where the protagonist manipulates, tricks and even murders his way into a substantial fortune, with no repercussions or repentance,” Movieguide®’s review reads. It also features strong homosexual content.
Movieguide® adds:
SALTBURN is a masterclass in everything that comprises a phenomenally crafted movie. However, the script is far too rushed to tease out the fine layers that really strong psychological thrillers unfold. For example, Oliver’s scheme is hastily and awkwardly revealed in the final minutes. Also, there’s insufficient foreshadowing to make the plot twist hit viewers with enough impact. Much worse SALTBURN’s dreadful morals, which depict its characters’ vices with grotesque candor. The characters’ sexual promiscuity, excessive foul language, and overall immoral attitudes and behavior make the movie unsuitable for moviegoers, especially for discerning, media-wise viewers.
While Disick’s daughter may not have watched the movie, her participation in the trend should remind parents that social media and entertainment can profoundly influence their children. Teaching kids to be media-wise will help them discern between what content should be emulated and what should be avoided.
“Just as children spend the first 14 years of their lives learning grammar with respect to the written word, they also need to be taught the grammar of twenty-first-century mass media so that they can think critically about the messages being programmed for them,” Movieguide® founder Dr. Ted Baehr writes.
How can you raise a media-wise child? Dr. Baehr suggests teaching them to ask these questions:
- What kind of role models, positive and negative, are the main characters?
- Who is the hero? And, who is the villain? And, how do their character traits agree with a biblical hero or villain?
- Do the moral statements and themes agree with a biblical worldview?
- Are real consequences to sin exposed and rebuked?
- How are relationships and love portrayed?
- How are Christians, religion, the church, the Bible, and God portrayed?
- Does the language honor God and people?
- If violence is included, how is it presented?
- If physical romantic activity is included, how is it presented?
- How appropriate is this material for my family and me?
“When children know the right questions to ask, they can arrive at the right answers to the problems presented by the mass media of entertainment,” he explains.