REVIEW: 'The Housemaid' Delivers One Of The Best Surprises Of The Year With Its Secrets And Twists

Christopher Mills
Dec 16
3 min read

Brendan Sklenar as Andrew, Sydney Sweeney as Mille, and Amanda Seyfried as Nina in 'The Housemaid.' Text reads "The Housemaid Review" — *The Housemaid*. © Lionsgate

Paul Feig is unstoppable with how fast he's putting out his movies. Just earlier in the year, he had released Another Simple Favor for streaming, and last year he had Jackpot! released on streaming. The Housemaid, thankfully, isn't a movie for streaming and is a film that's made to be experienced with a packed cinema as you witness all the secrets that the film has in store for you. If there's one thing Paul Feig is great at, it's building tension and the anticipation for a great reveal.

The Housemaid is based on the 2022 novel of the same name written by Freida McFadden that follows Millie (Sydney Sweeney), a young woman who finds a new job as a live-in housemaid for the Winchester family, who come from a wealthy background. Their picture-perfect life begins to fall apart as Millie begins to notice some of their dark secrets.

Millie at first glance seems like a sweet girl from a higher upbringing who is well-educated and more than the perfect person for the job, but that façade is quickly unraveled when we learn that Millie's life is the complete opposite and she's in fact living in her car. Millie's background being the complete opposite to what she's told Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) doesn't change the simple fact that she's a woman who's kind at heart and tries to have people's best intentions in mind.

Nina Winchester, on the other hand, lives the perfect life; she has the best husband she could ever ask for in Andrew Winchester (Brendan Sklenar), a beautiful little daughter named Cecelia Winchester (Indiana Elle) and a house that sometimes feels like it's too big for the three of them. For a woman that lives a perfect life on the surface, her anger can sometimes get the better of her, leading her to lash out at Millie and accuse her of acts that she has not committed.

Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester holding onto Sydney Sweeney as Millie's face in 'The Housemaid.' — Sydney Sweeney as Millie and Amanda Seyfried as Nina in *The Housemaid*. © Lionsgate

It begins to become a problem when it becomes clear that Nina is constantly asking her to do something like buying theatre tickets for a date night and then immediately getting mad that she's booked on a day that's already been booked in the calendar despite it being exactly what she told her to do. Rebecca Sonnenshine's script really plays with the audience as she forces us to try to piece together all of Nina's weird acts and the truth behind what is actually going on inside this house.

Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried both deliver strong performances with full commitment, as Sweeney plays the clueless girl with a mysterious past, switching character code at a moment's notice, and Seyfried delivers her most unhinged performance yet, which forces the audience to consistently question what the hell is even going on. Despite the two strong performances that really aid the engaging story by Sonnenshine, Brendan Sklenar arrives with an unpredictably unsettling performance that creates an eerie atmosphere for everyone in the house and in the audience watching.

The screenplay, alongside Feig's direction, helps to create an intense movie that makes you hold your breath until the final twist is revealed. There are many twists and turns throughout the film, and some you may see coming, but there are others that will catch you off guard that really help to elevate the story from its simplistic ground. It's hard to talk about the theme of the movie without giving away the biggest plot twist in The Housemaid, but it's a film that gives women agency and is about them claiming the power in a stereotypical patriarchal society. Whether The Housemaid does a good job on that is up for debate, but personally, it seems like it tried its best on tackling this theme despite the campiness and cheesiness of the movie.

The Housemaid is one of 2025's most twisted and sickening thrillers to release as you begin to learn the dark secrets that will have you thinking twice about the people you choose to let into your life. The movie can be predictable at times, but for 70% of the film, Feig uses his best strength of building tension to take away from the predictability of the movie, and it is accompanied by Theodore Shapiro's score, which will leave you on the edge of your seats. It has phenomenal performances from two women who are a great pair and overall is a fun time at the cinema that transforms from a playful, campy thriller to a gripping, dark and compelling movie. This is a film worth ensuring you don't get spoilt for to maximise your viewing experience.