THE HOUSEMAID (2025)

Genre: Drama
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone 
Runtime: 2 hr 12 mins
Rating: M18 (Secual Scenes and Violence)
Released By: Encore Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 1 January 2026

Synopsis: The Housemaid (2025) stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie, a young woman who takes a live-in job with the wealthy Winchester family, hoping for a fresh start. Amanda Seyfried plays Nina Winchester, the elegant but secretive lady of the house, whose polished life begins to crack as Millie uncovers disturbing truths. Tension builds when Millie forms a connection with the mysterious landscaper Enzo (Michele Morrone), revealing deeper layers of deception. The film is a gripping psychological thriller about trust, manipulation, and survival.

Movie Review:

Paul Feig’s The Housemaid is not the kind of film you analyse so much as indulge in. It is wildly entertaining, knowingly trashy, and gleefully aware of its own appeal—a glossy guilty pleasure powered by a ridiculously good-looking cast and a willingness to push buttons. You may tell yourself you’re here for the mystery, the twists, or the thriller mechanics, but let’s be honest: a large part of the draw is watching beautiful people behave badly in exquisitely staged surroundings.

Feig, the director behind 2011’s Bridesmaids and 2018’s A Simple Favor (as well as its 2025 sequel), leans confidently into a heightened genre space here. The Housemaid blends elements of erotic thriller, mystery, and pulpy melodrama, tossing in sex, violence, and enough narrative feints to keep audiences guessing. It’s not high art, nor does it pretend to be. Instead, its greatest pleasure comes from the communal experience—watching it with a crowd, collectively gasping at the twists, holding your breath during one of the most climactic confrontations we've seen in a while, and occasionally laughing in disbelief when the story gleefully goes off the rails.

The casting is, frankly, impeccable in terms of visual appeal. There is eye candy here for almost every demographic, and the film makes no apologies for flaunting it. Italian actor Michele Morrone pops up in a minor role, but his presence alone will delight fans of erotic thriller 365 Days (2020) and its sequels. Even with limited screen time, he brings the same smouldering intensity that made him an sex icon, proving once again that sometimes less is more.

Brandon Sklenar (It Ends With Us), meanwhile, is cast very much as the beefcake of the piece. The camera knows exactly what it’s doing when it lingers on his well-built physique, often framed behind a singlet or in moments of physical intimacy that feel designed to draw appreciative sighs. His performance doesn’t stretch far beyond the archetype, but it doesn’t need to—he fits seamlessly into the film’s fantasy-driven logic.

Sydney Sweeney (Anyone But You) delivers a solid and surprisingly grounded turn as the titular housemaid: a seemingly vulnerable young woman whose intelligence and resilience gradually emerge beneath her carefully constructed exterior. Sweeney is fully aware of her, ahem, assets, and doesn’t shy away from it, but she also gives her character enough emotional weight to make audiences root for her. As secrets unravel, she becomes the film’s moral anchor who is determined to survive the dangerous web she’s been pulled into.

The standout, however, is Amanda Seyfried (Mank). As the volatile mistress of the house, she delivers a performance that is both controlled and delightfully unhinged. Seyfried gets to tap into something feral here, oscillating between icy composure and moments of explosive, almost berserk abandon. When she finally lets loose, the film crackles with energy, and it’s clear she’s having enormous fun pushing her character to unexpected extremes.

Ultimately, The Housemaid is best enjoyed without guilt. It keeps you hooked from beginning to end, not because it’s profound, but because it’s confident in its own excess. And sometimes, that’s exactly what a movie of this genre should be. 

Movie Rating:

(A glossy, twisty guilty pleasure that knows exactly how good-looking it is, this is a thriller best enjoyed with a gasping audience in the cinema)

Review by John Li