The Housemaid (dir. Paul Feig)

by Jack Martin | Dec 26, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 131 mins

UK Distributor: Lionsgate

UK Release Date: 26 December 2025

WHO’S IN THE HOUSEMAID?

Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins, Indiana Elle, Mark Grossman, Hannah Cruz, Megan Ferguson, Ellen Tamaki

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Paul Feig (director, producer), Rebecca Sonnenshine (writer), Laura Fischer, Carly Kleinbart and Todd Lieberman (producers), Theodore Shapiro (composer), John Schwartzman (cinematographer), Brent White (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A young woman (Sweeney) becomes the housemaid for an affluent yet disturbed family…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE HOUSEMAID?

In an age where new movies, shows, books and games live or die by online buzz, Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel The Housemaid owes more than it could ever repay to TikTok. Thanks to significant attention that the book received via the social media platform’s “BookTok” community, it became an international bestseller with millions of copies sold, multiple sequels written by McFadden, and now of course a major Hollywood adaptation with big names attached in front of and behind the camera.

It’s easy to understand why BookTok took so well to the novel, for it and now director Paul Feig’s film both play around with heavily psychological and sometimes even erotic themes that you don’t really see much of nowadays, either on the screen or on the bookshelves. This kind of movie would easily have been lost in the mix were it made in the 80s or 90s, when you’d get all sorts of titillating thrillers like Basic Instinct and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle every other week, whereas now it’s a rarity among largely safe and reliably commercial cinematic offerings, which helps it stand out more among modern audiences.

But as with all things, the question remains: is it any good? Well, if you think about it too hard, probably not. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining, as this is the kind of big-screen trash that you know full well is preposterous yet can’t help but get sucked into the passion put into making such a silly but fun ride.

The film begins as Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney), a young woman eager to find work for reasons that become clear as day early on, arrives at the luxurious home of Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) for a job interview to be her family’s live-in housemaid. Nina is gracious and sweet-natured at first, especially when she enthusiastically offers Millie the job, but very quickly that façade drops to reveal a mentally unwell nightmare, constantly berating her new hire via blackbelt levels of passive-aggression and setting her up to fail with numerous fruitless requests and demands. Only Nina’s husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) offers genuine sympathy toward Millie, but as the two grow closer Nina becomes ever more unhinged – so far, so Lifetime Original Movie.

But as we eventually learn, there’s a lot more to this story. Like, a lot more. Obviously, there’ll be no spoilers in this review, but suffice to say The Housemaid is the kind of film that throws about twists and turns like they’re seeds in a poppy field. Feig and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine do fairly well to keep most of the biggest surprises as close to their chests as possible, until the time comes for certain revelations to be introduced at just the right moment so that we get much more of an understanding of how particular characters behave and think, while maintaining a consistently unsettling pace as the film goes along. It’s by far the biggest tonal shift of Feig’s career, more than even his similarly dark Simple Favour movies which still maintained a good chunk of the director’s comedic tendencies, whereas the humour here is more reserved with very few comic relief characters (save for Nina’s vapid housewife friends straight out of something like Bridesmaids, but even they aren’t in the film that much) and an emphasis on pitch-black humour, especially during a surprisingly gruesome second half.

Feig’s direction leans heavily into camp, which feels all too appropriate for this particular plot, especially since it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when you step back to think about it all, in particular how so much of it could been avoided by the simplest of communication between the right people. Nonetheless, the descent into campiness is something that the actors really understand from the moment they first show up on-screen, and nobody understands it more than Amanda Seyfried, who is having the time of her life hamming up her character’s immense instability.

The actor’s doe-eyed expressions lend to some genuinely creepy moments surrounding this character, whose ability to go from chipper and calm to completely trashing her own kitchen within minutes setting off more red flags than a dinner party at Hannibal Lecter’s house. Her range in this role is outstanding, as you can be terrified of her one minute and genuinely feeling sorry for her the next, because she has such a firm control over her character’s severe behavioural swings that despite her larger-than-life presence, she still does feel like an actual person instead of just another heightened psycho movie villain.

Seyfried is firing so hard on all cylinders here – to where I’d genuinely argue that she’d have a much easier time among 2025 awards voters with this performance than the one she gives in The Testament of Ann Lee – that she admittedly drives the attention away from her co-stars, including Sydney Sweeney who is good in this film and even has some of the most memorable moments, but she isn’t playing quite as interesting a character to match Seyfried’s bravura turn.

The same goes for Brandon Sklener, who does what he can but can’t help but feel a little miscast for this kind of character, especially since he doesn’t have the best chemistry with either of his fellow players, nor does he have the range for some of his later scenes which, again without spoilers, you’d need someone like Glen Powell or Michael B. Jordan to pull off what the filmmakers are going for with his character.

Much like the book, it’s flimsy and unmistakably trashy, but The Housemaid seems aware of itself enough to have fun while still delivering an enjoyably chilling tale weaved in the right kind of cinematic preposterousness.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Housemaid sees director Paul Feig adapt the bestselling novel into a campily entertaining psychological thriller that, while preposterous in theory and in execution, maintains a consistent dark tone that’s neatly complimented by a central turn from Amanda Seyfried whose mesmerising performance is more than enough reason to see this film.