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Go behind the scenes of The Housemaid with stars Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried and director Paul Feig, in theatres 19 December
Featurette: Lionsgate

The Housemaid
Directed by Paul Feig
Rated R
Tidied 19 December 2025
#TheHousemaidMovie

The Housemaid serves up both some decent and some indecent thrills.

Tempest in a Teapot

The Housemaid – at least in part – takes place during the chill of an East Coast winter. It’s only a single Christmas tree or other overt holiday decoration away from being a new counter-programming holiday classic. You know, the kind along the lines of Die Hard and Gremlins and Home Alone.

But, in the absence of some holiday décor in a super-ritzy mansion, The Housemaid works as a doozie of a psychological thriller. Go meta and take the mansion’s snowy exterior as a metaphor for the coldness of the world as whole.

It is a thriller that plays out along a couple different threads: the sexual divide and the wealth divide. Within that tapestry, each of the lead characters may (or may not) be guilty of something truly sinister. But there’s an opening: is it possible to be both guilty and sympathetic? A couple characters here make a compelling case for “yes.”

The setup itself is pretty simple. Millie (Sydney Sweeney, Anyone But You) is desperate for a new job after being separated from yet another toxic work environment and living out of her car, then cleaning up in grimy restrooms. Her resume’s a hot mess of lies and she wears glasses simply to look the part of a housemaid.

As fate would have it, Nina (Amanda Seyfried, Mean Girls) is in the market for a new housemaid. She needs help balancing a marriage, a daughter, a mansion, acute psychosis meds and maybe another pregnancy.

Andrew (Brandon Sklenar, Drop) is Nina’s supposedly doting and supportive husband who may or may not have entered the world of the providiged through his father’s IT company. Or maybe there’s a law firm in the picture. Regardless, the other neighborhood housewives have dubbed him the “Hot Saint” because he’s such a good man and, well, attractive – to them, at least. Nina herself describes him as “a handsome knight in shining armor with a great smile.”

There’s also an inexplicable reference to Andrew doing a TedTalk about why Barry Lyndon is a misunderstood masterpiece. Of all the platforms in the world, TedTalk? Barry Lyndon? Fine. Particularly given certain characters are seen watching it, making thematic affiliations between Barry Lyndon and The Housemaid is possible, if not a bit of a creative stretch.

It’s all in support of nothing quite being what it seems and nobody really being trustworthy. Everybody has a backstory and everybody’s estranged from the truth.

Family Feud

The big question in The Housemaid is who’s the weirdo? Or maybe more appropriately, who’s the weirder weirdo?

Needless to say, Millie gets the housemaid gig working for Nina and Andrew. The red flags are there, like the attic that’ll serve as her secluded bedroom having a sealed shut window, a dead bolt and a missing room key.

Desperate times call for desperate measure.

And it’s not long before Millie gets enmeshed in the madness of the mansion and its elite inhabitants and extended family.

The Housemaid isn’t the perfect thriller, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s got a biting sense of humor and some unexpected shock value. Of course, by definition, “shock value” is unexpected. But in the context of The Housemaid, the expression works. This is a story that goes south for all the right reasons. What lies beneath the beautiful surface is mighty ugly.

It’s a tale of two journals. One is kept by Millie as part of her probation (that bit’s a tease, not a spoiler). The other is kept by Nina as she documents her life both before and during (and even enduring) Andrew.

The narrative gets a little sloppy going into the third act. So much is done to keep the inevitable plot twists tightly held, it all leads to a rather clumsy extended monologue session in which a back story – a story within a story – stunts their impact instead of propels them.

Showdown

Despite the third act’s extended sequence of exposition, The Housemaid moves fast, keeps thing entertaining and keeps the twists at bay long enough to have some fun during the inevitable scenes of pure retribution.

What makes The Housemaid work as well as it does is summed up succinctly with both Sweeney and Seyfried delivering fearless performances. Sweeney continues to be criminally underrated in so many respects. Seyfried gets to go totally unhinged here. Both are fearless.

And, sure, Sklenar’s good too as the “Dark Mensch.”

Director Paul Feig for his part is also underrated with movies including the failed all-female Ghostbusters reboot (c’mon, it was actually pretty good). He has a knack for this type of material, blending comedy, action and some grisly scenes into a potpourri of entertainment.

As this tale of truth and consequences careens to a climax that is both bloody and bloody funny, threads of various concepts – alienation of affection, toxic work environments, obscene privilege among them, abandonment, low self-esteem – are all pulled together in a satisfying conclusion wherein evil gets its due.

It should be a one-and-done thriller, But the conclusion teases of a sequel, maybe even a whole series. Okay. That’s really not surprising. The Housemaid is based on the novel by Freida McFadden, who’s also already published two sequels (The Housemaid’s Secret and The Housemaid Is Watching), along with a short story entitled The Housemaid’s Wedding.

Actually, it could make for a fun series. As long as enough people pay The Housemaid a visit at the box office.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.