The Housemaid. A soapy thriller perfect for stay at home moms.
by Brandon Norwood
Image courtesy of Lionsgate
As I made my way to my seat two months ago, I absolutely had no idea what to expect with The Housemaid. Paul Feig doing a thriller was super intriguing. Little did I know, I was about to see one of the worst movies of 2025.
Image courtesy of Lionsgate.
Millie (Sydney Sweeny) is a troubled young woman living out of her car. Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) hires her to be a live-in housemaid for her wealthy family consisting of husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and daughter Cecelia (Indiana Elle). However, once moving into the Winchester estate, Millie soon discovers the threat(s) of the secrets hiding within the house and the family itself.
Once this movie revealed itself with what was really going on, I mentally checked out. My screening was packed and the audience was laughing together, at first, at the over-the-top nature of how corny it was. Intentional or not, it was insane on all fronts. Then everyone was all in once the reveal came.
Image courtesy of Lionsgate
This movie is shot and paced like a soap opera. Even the sex scenes were shot in a softcore, soapy way. Imagine AS THE WORD TURNS by way of Skinamax. The men in the audience will probably liven up as the internet's latest obsession (Sweeny) is once again nude. While a lot of different dudes told me that they appreciated it, I've seen most of Sydney's work now where it's expected. To me it's just another Tuesday. I do wish y'all would get over a pretty white woman with big boobs. Sydney is not the first. And she won't be the last. It's fucking annoying at this point.
Spoilers from here on out. You've been warned. Seriously SPOILERS.
Yeah, I'm clearly not the target audience for this movie. I've seen a LOT of white women excited for this whether it's them reading the book on public transportation or getting excited seeing the trailer before a movie.
I was waiting for the other shoe to drop on Nina. Amanda's performance felt very tacky and "big" up until the point of the reveal that I knew she was hiding something. Well yeah. Ends up she's faking her psychotic episodes to escape Andrew who's a complete psychopath and hired Millie to take her place cause nothing more than every guy wants is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, big titty woman in her twenties. Hey more power to you if you do, but it's so clichéd that I immediately checked out. I can see why this was a bestseller. It definitely pleases the demographic it goes for (which is absolutely NOT me).
Image courtesy of Lionsgate
Tonally it's all over the place. I'm shocked at how it swings from campy to soapy to "serious". The decision to have voice-over is baffling. It doesn't particularly work well and after a while I drowned it out despite it being used to drive the plot forward at points.
My first thoughts as the credits rolled was laughing at that weak set-up for the sequel which to my surprise I immediately found out through Google that the author, Freida McFadden, has in fact written more Housemaid books.
Image courtesy of Lionsgate
My second thought was that this was done better when it was called Gone Girl. I've read all of Gillian Flynn's books. This type of pulp storytelling Gillian does well. Sharp Objects the miniseries is honestly better than the book.
But this type of pulp fiction ain't it. I imagine fans of the novel are going to absolutely love this. Everyone else, stay away.
The Housemaid opens on theaters on December 19th via Lionsgate.