The Housemaid (2025) Film Review: Glossy, Twisty, and Deliciously Mad

I watched The Housemaid partly because I occasionally enjoy a good thriller. 

My brother, however, had a simpler explanation. He thought I watched it because of Sydney Sweeney’s "good genes", if you get what I mean. I laughed, because there is probably some truth in that (un)flattering characterization. But to be fair to the movie, The Housemaid is not just about watching Sydney Sweeney in steamy scenes. It is also a glossy, entertaining, and rather mad thriller.

Plot summary

Based on Freida McFadden’s bestselling 2022 novel, The Housemaid follows Millie Calloway, played by Sydney Sweeney, a young woman with a troubled past who takes a job as a live in housemaid for the wealthy Winchester family. 

Nina Winchester, played by Amanda Seyfried, appears fragile, difficult, and deeply unstable. Her husband Andrew, played by Brandon Sklenar, appears calm, collected, and attractive, the sort of gentlemanly man who seems to offer safety and gentle support in a house full of tension.

Of course, in a movie like this, appearances are usually traps.

What works best

The first thing that works is the setting. The Winchester home is beautiful, polished, and slightly unreal. It is the kind of house where everything looks expensive. Millie is given an attic room that can be locked from the outside, and that detail immediately makes the viewer uncomfortable. We immediately know that this has something to do with the plot. 

Sydney is convincing as Millie. She brings a mix of vulnerability, guardedness, and survival instinct to the role. Millie is not just a helpless young woman walking into danger. She has her own history and her own (murderous) secrets. That makes her more interesting, because the film slowly invites us to question not only the Winchesters, but Millie herself. 

Still, for me, Amanda Seyfried steals a great deal of the movie. 

She is very, very convincing as a madwoman. 

Nina is unstable, cruel, needy, frightening, manipulative. One moment she seems like a victim. The next moment she seems like the dangerous lunatic we have come to expect.  

This is also where The Housemaid becomes fun. It is a pulpy thriller about desire, control, secrets, and revenge. There are moments where the plot becomes far fetched, but that is part of the ride. The film is best enjoyed as entertainment.

The 'good guy' husband Andrew is important because he gives the story its smoother surface. He seems reasonable and composed, especially in contradistinction to Nina’s chaos. That contrast helps the movie work. In a thriller built on misdirection, the most dangerous person is not always the one who looks most unhinged.

What I enjoyed most was how the movie keeps shifting our sympathies. 

At different points, we feel sorry for Millie, then doubtful of her. 

We fear Nina, then wonder whether she knows more than she is saying. We trust Andrew, then begin to wonder whether that trust has been too easily given. 

This constant shifting is what makes the film watchable.

The Housemaid is not perfect. Some of its twists are loud rather than elegant. Some moments feel like the movie is enjoying its own craziness a little too much. But I did not mind. A thriller like this should have a bit of madness in it. It should make the audience lean forward, laugh nervously, and wonder who is really playing whom.

Conclusion and recommendation

Overall, The Housemaid is a glossy, twisty, and entertaining domestic thriller. Sydney Sweeney gives the film glamour and grit, but Amanda Seyfried gives it its wildest and most memorable performance. If you enjoy beautiful homes, ugly secrets, and people who are not what they seem, this is an enjoyable ride.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

(All views are my own personal thoughts and reflections on movies and books that I read, on my blog Left Hand Column: Book and Film Reviews.)