The Housemaid (2025): A Review

THE HOUSEMAID

People say that good help is hard to find. However, have they considered the other expression of "bosses from Hell"? The Housemaid, based on a series of novels, takes twists and turns in our lurid story of sex and abuse. While I found some elements particularly distasteful, I appreciate how The Housemaid works to give people violent and erotic thrills.

Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) is interviewing for the position of housemaid. Her potential employer, Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) seems pleasant enough, almost cheerful. However, both women are not what they appear to be. The film reveals piece by piece Millie's story. She is homeless and struggling to live. She is also on parole. She faked her résumé. However, all that works in her favor, for Nina hires her.

To say that Nina is mercurial is to put it mildly. She gives Millie contradictory instructions on everything from housework to picking up her daughter Cece (Indiana Elle). Nina accuses Millie of losing a speech she had been working on. She tells her to pick Cece up from ballet only to not inform her that Nina had given Cece permission for a sleepover. We know why Millie stays on the job. Losing it would mean going back to prison.

Yet, why does Nina's extremely hunky husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) stay with this psycho? He is very calm and measured. He is also built like a brick house and the object of desire among Nina's wealthy friends. They not only declare Andrew a saint but openly discuss Nina's stay at an asylum after she attempted to drown Cece. Any reasonable man would have divorced Nina. Andrew also has a good chance to get custody of Cece despite not being her biological father. Things come to a head when Nina first asks and then denies asking Millie to book a weekend getaway with Andrew. Circumstances get Andrew and Millie to take that trip.

It looks like Nina is finally going to be forced out and Millie take her place. However, not everything is as it appears. Andrew is not what he seems to be. Nina too is also much more grounded in reality than what the world may think. It becomes apparent that Millie is caught in a long game of sex games. However, will Millie be able to outwit her adversary? Will Nina become an unexpected secret ally? What of the mysterious Italian groundskeeper Enzo (Michele Morrone)? It will take a lot of torture, psychological and physical, before both women are free and Millie can take up another housemaid position in a new home.

Normally, the suggestion of a sequel, vague or otherwise, would irritate me. However, The Housemaid is the first of an as of this writing three book series. As such, the tease for another Housemaid story at least has a logic to it. I have, for full disclosure, never read the Freida McFadden novel. If the novel is close to how The Housemaid the movie is, it means that McFadden wrote a novel that followed my Number One Golden Rule of Filmmaking: Something will happen if the plot requires it to. Once Nina forces Millie to arrange that romantic getaway, one knows exactly what will happen. 

When you have such luscious bodies as those of Sydney Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar in your film, not giving them a sex scene would be a disservice to moviegoers. However, The Housemaid has to have them eventually fall into a liaison. It, like many of these types of stories, depends on everything, good and bad, going exactly right. No chance that Millie could be a lesbian. No chance that maybe she does not go to Andrew's room after being fired. No chance that Millie could document Nina's abusive behavior. Everything has to happen exactly as it needs to in order to make The Housemaid work.

I am able to suspend disbelief when watching. I was not fully able to do so here. I think it has to do with how Rebecca Sonnenshine's screenplay and director Paul Feig shaped Andrew. Nina is so openly loony in behavior, yet Andrew never said anything against her. It is Andrew's calm manner and soft speaking voice that immediately made me think something was off about Andrew and not Nina. No one can be that calm under such trying situations. Even the most patient and loving of spouses would have a breaking point. Andrew did not. That he never seemed remotely troubled by Nina's erratic behavior made me immediately suspect that he was the dangerous one. 

I suppose that credit should go to the three leads. They all played their parts correctly. Sydney Sweeney was strong as the put-upon Millie. The script also allowed a logic as to why she would endure such monstrous abuse by Nina. As a side note, both my late mother and I have endured violent employers until we reached a point of having to flee in rage or terror. Sweeney as our protagonist made Millie sympathetic. Amanda Seyfried too balanced being psychotic and liberated. Brandon Sklenar was probably the weakest part here. He was called to look hunky, which he did. The Housemaid if anything does enjoy letting the viewer fixate on his large frame. He was also spookily effective when his character reveals his soul as opposed to his body.

I think thought that a major issue for me was in how The Housemaid is both sadistic and misandrist. Andrew fits into a stereotype of the evil man tormenting the woman. There is a vaguely Saw-like manner to Andrew. I watched with some unease how Andrew is shown as using his outward charm and appearance to hide a monster. Something about it simply did not sit right with me. I could not shake the idea that The Housemaid suggests that all or nearly all men are abusive by their nature. Granted, I am not saying that such an idea was the filmmakers' intention. I just say that that is how it struck me at the end. 

This was what I thought as I watched the reenactment of how Nina came to be here. It came to me when I saw what Millie was put through. It came to my mind when Andrew was put through his own devices. It did not end when we get the sequel tease of another woman needing Millie's special kind of work. 

I also disliked the lengthy midsection where we get Nina's story. I got the twist soon enough. I just thought that this section dragged on more than it should. The Housemaid is over two hours long. I think the film could have gotten to things faster. 

I get that The Housemaid is a revenge thriller. I get that many audience members loved it. I get that I probably am overthinking things. All that being said, I still have a great sense of unease about The Housemaid. I did not hate it. I just did not fall for it as much as others did.

DECISION: C-