The Housemaid 2025 Review: Why This Thriller Feels Stuck in the '90s
The Housemaid 2025 Review: Why This Thriller Feels Stuck in the '90s
The Housemaid 2025 pulled in an impressive $125.6M at the box office, yet I couldn't shake the feeling I'd stepped into a time machine set for the 1990s. With a 74% Tomatometer score and 92% audience rating, the film has clearly resonated with viewers who appreciate what critics now call "smut" but what we used to recognize as erotic thrillers. In fact, the movie's biggest strength is its total commitment to being fast food entertainment. In this review of The Housemaid movie 2025, I'll examine why director Paul Feig's thriller feels like a nostalgic throwback, analyze standout performances from The Housemaid cast including Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, and determine whether this retro approach works for modern audiences.
The Housemaid Movie 2025: Plot and Premise Overview
What the story is about
Freida McFadden's source material centers on Millie Calloway, a woman fresh out of prison who desperately needs employment to satisfy her parole requirements. She served ten years for killing a rapist classmate in high school. When Nina Winchester offers her a live-in housemaid position at the family's Great Neck, Long Island estate, Millie sees it as her chance to rebuild.
The Winchester household appears pristine on the surface. Andrew Winchester seems charming and attentive, while his wife Nina manages their daughter Cece and their sprawling home. However, Millie quickly discovers Nina's erratic behavior, from destroying her own kitchen to forgetting entire conversations. The official synopsis describes the film as pulling Millie into "a sexy, seductive game of secrets and power with shocking twists that keep you guessing to the end".
What starts as a straightforward employer-employee relationship spirals into something far more dangerous. Nina's apparent instability masks a carefully orchestrated plan, while Andrew's perfect facade hides his true nature as an abusive husband who locks his wife in the attic for minor infractions.
The book-to-screen adaptation process
Rebecca Sonnenshine handled screenplay duties for this adaptation of McFadden's 2022 novel. Paul Feig took on directing responsibilities, collaborating closely with production designer Elizabeth Jones to translate the story's psychological tension into visual language.
The creative team aimed for what Jones described as "a Nancy Meyers movie gone wrong". Everything appears perfectly curated at first glance, but the design work subtly signals that nothing is as it seems. As a result, the production prioritized creating spaces that shift from comforting to oppressive as the narrative unfolds.
Setting and initial setup
Millie's attic bedroom becomes a crucial element in establishing the film's atmosphere. While the Winchester family occupies layered, excessive spaces below, Millie's room is sparse and almost entirely white. The lock sits on the outside of the door, an unsettling detail that foreshadows the control dynamics at play.
Production design transforms ordinary domestic spaces into tools of manipulation. Hallways feel tighter as the story progresses, rooms become more imposing, and certain areas appear deliberately off-limits. Every visual choice reinforces the power imbalance, using the house itself to hint at hidden violence and psychological warfare.
Why The Housemaid Feels Like a 90s Erotic Thriller
Visual style and cinematography choices
Cinematographer John Schwartzman reveals that Feig wanted The Housemaid to open like a Nancy Meyers movie before derailing into chaos. The approach delivers soft lighting and traditional framing that feels comforting at first glance. However, this polished esthetic creates an unexpected problem. The cinematography and production design are impeccable and clean, but the visual style is too sterile to be sexy. The film borrows heavily from 90s thrillers like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Sleeping with the Enemy, complete with outdated cliches such as the mirror gag.
Some critics argue the compositions feel reverse-engineered for social media, with perfectly centered framing and symmetrical blocking staged so cleanly they appear pre-cropped for vertical viewing. The visual language prioritizes content esthetics over cinematic depth, resulting in scenes that could easily be clipped for algorithm-friendly distribution.
Narrative structure borrowed from the past
The Housemaid functions as a pulp potboiler with nothing on its mind beyond messing with audiences, delivering prurient thrills, and sending viewers home howling at the outlandishness. This approach channels the airport-read energy of Gone Girl mixed with The Stepford Wives' satirical zip. The screenplay leans into multiple directions at once, functioning as part psychological thriller, part revenge thriller, and part erotic thriller.
The film's self-awareness about its soapy excess transforms silliness into charm. Dark humor bubbles up throughout, particularly in Seyfried's increasingly unhinged delivery, making the material work despite its inherent cheese.
The steamy scenes and gender parity approach
The Housemaid earns its R-rating with steamy sex scenes between Sweeney and Sklenar. One sequence is described as gratuitous, possibly included so protesting boyfriends dragged along on Boxing Day wouldn't get bored. The scenes are shot in an artistic way despite feeling slightly cheap and unwarranted. Sex montages appear throughout, pushing boundaries further than MPAA-conscious studios typically allow.
Predictable thriller tropes that define the era
The narrative deploys classic 90s thriller elements: gaslighting, erratic behavior from the supposedly unstable wife, snobby social circles, and forbidden attraction between employer and employee. The big reveal isn't particularly surprising, but the execution is both wild and downright comical. The final act succumbs to conveniently-timed explanations, yet delivers such a wildly satisfying experience that audiences lap it up regardless.
The Housemaid Cast: Performances That Carry the Film
Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway
Sweeney's portrayal of Millie divided critics sharply. Some praised her ability to play a "nice girl" with hints of darker layers, drawing audiences into Millie's victimhood while keeping us wondering about her manipulative side. She delivers warmth, distress, and quiet cunning in measured doses. However, other reviewers found her performance wooden, noting she mumbled lines with the same facial expression throughout, showing limited emotional range. One critic observed she seemed to sleepwalk through most of the film, only coming alive in the climactic finish.
Amanda Seyfried's scene-stealing turn as Nina
Seyfried dominates The Housemaid 2025 with a performance that critics describe as nothing short of startling. Playing Nina as a haughty harridan with serious issues, she transforms from her usual sympathetic roles into something cold and hypnotic. Her kitchen destruction scene became legendary on set. Feig kept cameras handheld to capture her throwing dishes, slamming drawers, and spilling milk everywhere. Seyfried called it the most fun character she'd played since Karen in Mean Girls, adding she almost felt bad for her costars because Nina offered the best role.
Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester
Sklenar handles Andrew's multi-layered complexity by balancing charm and menace. He incorporated subtle performance shifts between scenes with Nina versus Millie, adding clever Easter eggs throughout. Critics noted mixed results, with some finding him generically handsome but lacking personality. His character presents as patient and virtuous before revealing darker layers, though the bland execution made those secrets hard to believe.
Supporting cast contributions
Elizabeth Perkins delivers a droll performance as Andrew's mother, described as a mother-in-law from WASP hell.
What Works and What Doesn't in This Throwback Thriller
The effective plot twists
Feig drops clues throughout that pay off later, despite heavy-handed execution. The biggest twist arrives at the film's midpoint rather than the finale, rearranging the drama with entirely new stakes. Some twists register as predictable, but Feig handles his script deftly enough that watching them uncovered remains satisfying. The film smartly shifts sympathies as it progresses, making it easy to root for increasingly brutal vengeance.
Pacing issues in the first half
The first act drags considerably compared to the rest of the film. Millie discovers Nina's secrets at a punishing slow pace for audiences. The setup expends too much time establishing background information, heading in a tedious and unoriginal direction. Once the truth emerges, The Housemaid 2025 immediately picks up with tight pacing and well-delivered tension.
Paul Feig's directorial choices
Feig brings campy elements to the surface while sticking close to McFadden's twist-filled plot. His demented sense of humor never loses sight of heavy themes about abuse. However, the film suffers from tone problems, being neither serious enough nor frivolous enough to solve its numerous issues.
The ending that divides audiences
Feig expanded the book's ending to deliver a more violent, bloodier climax. The policewoman conveniently being Andrew's ex-fiancée's sister drew criticism for lazy writing. Some found the finale satisfying, while others considered it an unearned, self-righteous conclusion.
Conclusion
The Housemaid 2025 won't revolutionize the thriller genre, but it doesn't try to. Likewise, its 90s esthetic and predictable twists might feel outdated to some viewers. However, if you're craving unapologetic camp with solid performances (especially Seyfried's deliciously unhinged turn), this delivers exactly what it promises. The film knows what it is: fast-food entertainment that satisfies a specific appetite. For that reason alone, I found myself enjoying the ride despite its obvious flaws.
