The Housemaid (2025 film)

2025 film by Paul Feig From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Housemaid is a 2025 American erotic psychological thriller film directed by Paul Feig and written by Rebecca Sonnenshine.[6][7][8] It is based on the 2022 novel by Freida McFadden, and stars Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. In the film, Millie Calloway, a young woman with a troubled past, becomes the live-in maid for a wealthy family whose household hides dark secrets.

Directed byPaul Feig
Screenplay byRebecca Sonnenshine
Based on
The Housemaid
by Freida McFadden
Produced by
Quick facts Directed by, Screenplay by ...
The Housemaid
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPaul Feig
Screenplay byRebecca Sonnenshine
Based on
The Housemaid
by Freida McFadden
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJohn Schwartzman
Edited byBrent White
Music byTheodore Shapiro
Production
companies
  • Hidden Pictures
  • Pretty Dangerous Pictures
Distributed byLionsgate
Release dates
  • December 2, 2025 (2025-12-02) (Axa Equitable Center)
  • December 19, 2025 (2025-12-19) (United States)
Running time
131 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$35 million[2][3]
Box office$400 million[4][5]
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The Housemaid premiered at the Axa Equitable Center in New York City on December 2, 2025, and was released in the United States by Lionsgate on December 19. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $400 million on a budget of $35 million. A sequel is in development, with Feig and Sweeney set to return and scheduled for release on December 17, 2027.

Plot

On parole for manslaughter, Millie Calloway is hired by Nina Winchester as a live-in maid. She joins Nina's wealthy husband Andrew and daughter Cece at their mansion in Great Neck, Long Island, and is given an attic bedroom with a sealed window and a door that can be locked from the outside. Millie is desperate to keep her job as a condition of her parole. Nina erupts at Millie, falsely claiming that she threw away Nina's notes. Nina later threatens to fire Millie and tells her to stay away from Andrew. Millie learns that Nina lost her parents in a suspicious house fire, can't have more children, takes antipsychotic medications, and was institutionalized for trying to drown Cece and attempting suicide by overdose.

At Nina's instruction, Millie books Broadway musical tickets and a hotel for the Winchesters; however, Nina then denies having given her these instructions. While Nina takes Cece to ballet camp, Andrew and Millie secretly attend the show, enjoy dinner together, and check into the hotel. Receiving a flood of angry texts from Nina, Millie is comforted by Andrew. The two have sex and return home. Nina tells Millie she knows she spent ten years in prison for killing a rapist classmate in high school.

Nina finds the musical's playbill and threatens Millie, but Andrew defends her and demands that Nina leave. Andrew and Millie continue their romance. Millie decides to serve Andrew breakfast on an heirloom china plate from his controlling mother, but the presence of Enzo, the groundskeeper, outside the door frightens her and causes her to drop and break the plate. Andrew fires Enzo and tells Millie to pick up the pieces. That night, Andrew brings Millie to the attic room, drugs her, and locks her inside. When she wakes up, she demands he let her out, but he refuses.

In a letter that Nina plans to give to her daughter when she's grown, Nina explains that she had nothing to do with her parents' death. A married law professor got her pregnant and she fell for Andrew while raising Cece as a single mother. Early in their marriage, Andrew requested that Nina dye her brunette locks blonde. When she missed an appointment to touch up her roots, he locked her in the attic room until she pulled out one hundred hairs from her scalp; he forced her to do it again after claiming that one strand was missing a follicle. He then drugged her, framed her for attempting to kill Cece and herself, and continued to torment her with confinement in the psychiatric hospital and the attic. Enzo tried to help her and Cece escape Andrew's abuse to no avail. Finally, Nina hired Millie, accurately predicting that Andrew would leave her for Millie.

As punishment for breaking the china, Andrew gives Millie a shard and demands that she cut her stomach once for each of the plate's pieces. After doing so, Millie stabs him with a knife hidden for her by Nina and locks him in the attic room. Ordering him to pull out one of his front teeth with pliers, Millie forces him to comply by breaking many pieces of his mother's china and threatening to burn the attic. When Nina picks up Cece from camp, Cece suggests that Nina save Millie. Nina sneaks into the house and unlocks the attic door, believing that Millie is still inside. Andrew attacks Millie and Nina, but Millie escapes. Andrew tries to kill Nina, but Millie returns and pushes him into the house's stairwell, killing him. Nina drops a lightbulb to make it appear that Andrew fell while trying to install it.

A policewoman, Jessica Connors, notices that the evidence casts doubt on Nina's explanation for Andrew's death. Jessica mentions that her sister was once engaged to Andrew, which was a traumatic experience for her. Jessica decides to describe his death as an accident. After Andrew's funeral, Nina gives Millie a $100,000 check, then leaves with Cece to start a new life. Nina recommends Millie's services to her friend Lisa, who implies that her husband is abusive. Millie asks when she can start.

Cast

The film stars Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, and Michele Morrone.
  • Sydney Sweeney as Wilhelmina "Millie" Calloway, a housemaid with a criminal record
  • Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester, a wealthy woman who hires Millie
  • Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester, Nina's husband
  • Michele Morrone as Enzo Accardi, an Italian groundskeeper
  • Elizabeth Perkins as Evelyn Winchester, Andrew's mother
  • Indiana Elle as Cecelia "Cece" Winchester, Nina's daughter
    • Hope Grant as infant CeCe
  • Amanda Joy Erickson as Suzanne, a local housewife
  • Megan Ferguson as Jilianne, a local housewife
  • Ellen Tamaki as Patrice, a local housewife
  • Arabella Olivia Clark as Young Nina, age 8
  • Don DiPetta as Officer Jenkins
  • Lamar B. Slaughter as Officer Stanley
  • Alaina Surgener as Amanda, a local housemaid
  • Alexandra Seal as Jessica Connors, a policewoman
  • Brian D. Cohen as Detective Smythe
  • Hannah Cruz as Lexi
  • Ellen Adair as Lisa Killefer, a wealthy woman who interviews Millie in the epilogue

Production

Paul Feig directed The Housemaid and produced it with Todd Lieberman and Laura Fischer for Hidden Pictures, using a screenplay by Rebecca Sonnenshine adapting the 2022 novel by Freida McFadden. In October 2024, Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried came on board as leading actresses and executive producers alongside McFadden and Alex Young.[9][10] Seyfried was not aware she was credited as an executive producer until three weeks into production; she claimed that this credit was a “vanity credit" negotiated by her agent and clarified that she "didn't do shit to make that movie. I only acted."[11] Brandon Sklenar joined the cast that month followed by Michele Morrone in December 2024.[10][12] Elizabeth Perkins was also cast in the film.[13] Media Capital Technologies co-financed the film.[14]

Principal photography began on January 3, 2025, in New Jersey,[15][16] and wrapped in March 2025.[17]

Theodore Shapiro composed the film's score, marking his eighth collaboration with Feig.[18][19] Commercial songs that were featured in the film, but not included in the soundtrack albums:[20]

Release

The Housemaid premiered at the Axa Equitable Center on December 2, 2025, and was released in the United States on December 19, 2025.[13] The film was released on VOD on February 3, 2026, and on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 17, 2026.[21][22]

Reception

Box office

The Housemaid grossed $126.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $273.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $400 million.[4][5]

In the United States and Canada, The Housemaid was released alongside Avatar: Fire and Ash, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, and David, and was projected to gross $20–25 million from 3,015 theaters in its opening weekend.[3] The film made $8 million on its first day, including $2.3 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $19 million, finishing in third behind Fire and Ash and David.[23] It held well in its second weekend, dropping just 19.5% to $15.3 million and finishing in fourth.[24] The film made $15.1 million, $10.1 million, and $8.5 million in its third, fourth, and fifth weekends.[25][26][27]

Critical response

Amanda Seyfried was praised for her performance.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 74% of 201 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "A sly throwback to the lurid thrillers that used to dominate multiplexes, The Housemaid cleans up nicely thanks to its wicked sense of fun and a delightfully unnerving performance from Amanda Seyfried."[28]

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend the film.[23]

TheWrap's William Bibbiani gave the film a positive review and wrote, "The Housemaid has its twists, and you'll probably see some of them coming a mile off, even if you don't know exactly how the secrets will be revealed or what form the danger will take. On more than one occasion, the twist is that The Housemaid is even weirder and funnier than you expect — and that's a welcome surprise."[30] Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph gave a four stars rating out of five for the film, stating, "This is a full-tilt throwback to 'erotic thriller' tropes from the 1990s."[6] Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "The Housemaid is a delightful hall of mirrors in which reality turns out to be subject to infinite modification."[31] Marta Medina del Valle of El Confidencial rated the "post-postmodern artifact" 4 out of 5 stars, declaring it the "best worst movie" of recent times.[32]

In a negative review for Slant Magazine, Anzhe Zhang wrote, "The Housemaid's twist is a doozy, but it falls just short of being a deconstruction of tradwife values."[33]

Accolades

More information Award, Date of ceremony ...
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Astra Film Awards January 9, 2026 Best Book to Screen Adaptation The Housemaid Won [34]
Columbus Film Critics Association January 8, 2026 Actor of the Year[a] Amanda Seyfried Nominated [35]
Hawaii Film Critics Society January 12, 2026 Best Supporting Actress Nominated [36]
Michigan Movie Critics Guild December 8, 2025 The MMCG Award for Film Excellence Paul Feig[b] Nominated [37]
New Jersey Film Critics Circle December 31, 2025 Best New Jersey Representation The Housemaid Nominated [38]
Saturn Awards March 8, 2026 Best Thriller Movie The Housemaid Nominated [39]
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Sequel

In January 2026, Lionsgate announced that a sequel had been greenlit, with Feig, Sweeney and Morrone returning. The sequel is set to be an adaptation of The Housemaid's Secret, the second book in The Housemaid series by Freida McFadden.[40][41][42]

In March 2026, Lionsgate Studios announced that the sequel will be released on December 17, 2027, with Kirsten Dunst added to the cast.[43][44] In June 2026, Paul Anthony Kelly joined the cast.[45]

Notes

  1. [a]
    For an Exemplary Body of Work, also for The Testament of Ann Lee
  2. [b]
    Director, also for Another Simple Favor

References

External links

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