I knew nothing about The Housemaid before going in, aside from having seen bits of the trailer. I had no idea it was based on a popular book series by Freida McFadden, and I thought I had the whole movie pegged from the get-go. It didn’t help that Sydney Sweeney has received quite a lot of flak for her other activities outside of acting, so I was went in with very little expectations.
A sexy thriller about a housemaid entering a wealthy home filled with dark secrets. This is nothing new, really, but director Paul Feig and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine have a lot of fun with the material and the premise, and a seriously arresting performance by Amanda Seyfried makes The Housemaid an enjoyable watch.
Sydney Sweeney plays Millie, a woman with a troubled past who takes a job as a stay-in housemaid for the very wealthy Winchester family. She meets Nina (Amanda Seyfried), who is all bubbly and cheerful and seems like a joy to work for. Once she gets the job, she meets Nina’s husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and their daughter CeCe (Indiana Elle).
Andrew is a mountain of a man; he’s handsome and charming while Cece is aloof and standoffish. Things soon turn sideways when Nina begins exhibiting sudden outbursts, blaming Millie for things she didn’t do or gaslighting her outright. Millie’s past creates the need to keep the job and, of course, Andrew comes to her rescue. We can all guess where this is going.
And it does go there but then it also has more twists and turns. Some you already suspect, others not quite so. But Feig and Sonnenshine do a fantastic job of keeping the tension high, slowly building it up and raising the stakes more and more until all hell breaks loose.
Sweeney’s doe-eyed looks work well for her role as Millie. When Nina starts to break down Millie with each passing day, Sweeney really embodies Millie’s victimization. You can’t help but feel sorry for her, being trapped between a rock and a very hard place. Andrew stepping in to Millie’s defense adds even more tension rather than a feeling of safety because you know it will further amplify Nina’s erratic behaviour and trigger her psychotic episodes. The film is very good at keeping you on your toes, with a few well-placed jump scares thrown in to add to the fun.
While Sweeney and Sklenar bring in the chemistry, heat things up with some very intense sex scenes, and deliver solid performances that fit right in with the film’s tone, it is Seyfried who elevates The Housemaid into a real horrorfest. She plays Nina’s duality down to a tee; sweet and warm when she’s lucid, then downright unhinged and, completely uninhibited when she’s at the opposite pole. It’s a really fun performance that really makes the film.
What could have been just a run-of-the-mill sexy thriller takes a twist and a turn and ends up touching on some feminist issues that subtly finds its way into the film’s third act. Less than a film that tackles social class disparity – issues about rich and poor – but more about women, and some of the things they face on a daily basis. It wraps these discussions up in an entertaining thriller that keeps you on your toes and offers up some sexy imagery along with it.
It’s a refreshing change and a breath of fresh air. And I know the book series has two successful follow-ups and the film teases a sequel. But I hope they don’t do it. I feel that it ended just at the right note. Not every story needs a sequel. Sometimes, as with the story we just watched, in this case The Housemaid, serves as a catalyst for our own imagination, letting us do the rest of the work ourselves.
