DIRECTOR
Paul Feig
Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy, Ghostbusters (2016), A Simple Favour, Last Christmas, The School for Good and Evil, Jackpot!, Another Simple Favour

STARS 
Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Indiana Elle and Elizabeth Perkins

Nina Winchester. She’s got style, she’s got grace, but good lord, she is no Miss United States. Any appearance of congeniality is counterfeit.

This is the rude awakening that hits newly hired live-in housemaid, Millie (Sydney Sweeney), after just her first night spent inside the gated grand residence of her affluent employers, which also includes Nina’s patient, calming and undeniably handsome husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and their 7-year-old daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle). Despite quickly encountering her own devil wearing Prada in Nina (Amanda Seyfried), Millie needs this job for reasons she chooses to keep close to her chest and remains steadfast in finding ways to deliver every duty demanded of her. Nina’s erratic and extreme behaviour, which can turn from radiant to raging in seconds, is harbouring something sinister that threatens to end more than just Millie’s employment as family secrets are revealed.

For reasons I will largely steer clear of in this review due to being in spoiler territory, I did feel somewhat conflicted while thinking through and writing my overall summary and deciding on the final rating for The Housemaid. Due to the fact this is a thriller with some tantalising forthcoming twists, many earlier developments are called into question and if you ponder proceedings long and hard enough like I did, one or two may even land on one’s moral compass. While I do believe there are a couple of actions that are less credible and do maintain my moral standpoint on it, I also simply cannot deny The Housemaid is devilishly fun, electrifyingly entertaining, magnificently and menacingly mysterious and boasts a total knockout performance from Amanda Seyfried!

Based on the 2022 novel of the same name by Freida McFadden, what truly works supremely well from the outset and right through to the finale in The Housemaid is the intrigue it continually builds and the guessing and second-guessing it constantly provokes from viewers. For instance, of all the space in such a spacious and luxurious home, why is Millie assigned the attic with no opening window as her bedroom? What does groundskeeper Enzo (Michele Morrone) know he is seemingly but secretly wanting to warn Millie of? These are just a couple of safer examples to provide among a plethora of others triggered by writing that never lets viewers get too comfortable with any of their predictions.

Other notable factors that contribute to The Housemaid being polished in the areas it is include all other performances, but namely Sydney Sweeney, Brandon Sklenar and Elizabeth Perkins (and her hairdo!), playing one of the central character’s mother, the perfectly paired music score, its eroticism and appropriate bursts of humour. My level of thorough enjoyment watching this psychological thriller exceeds the final rating I’ve decided upon. 

The Housemaid is showing in cinemas across Australia from Boxing Day December 26th, 2025.

Moviedoc thanks Studiocanal and Annette Smith: Ned & Co for the invitation to the screening of this film. 

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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