The Housemaid (2025 film)
The Housemaid is a 2025 American erotic psychological thriller film directed by Paul Feig. It is based on the 2022 novel by Freida McFadden, and stars Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, and Brandon Sklenar. In the film, Millie Calloway, a young woman with a troubled past, becomes the live-in housekeeper for a wealthy family whose household hides dark secrets.
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 positive reviews from critics and grossed $309.8 million worldwide. A sequel is in development, with Feig, Sweeney, and Morrone set to return.
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 home in Great Neck, Long Island, given an attic bedroom that locks from the outside. She also meets Enzo, a groundskeeper who states that she doesn’t belong there, when Millie introduces herself. Despite Nina's erratic moods, violent outbursts, and contradictory instructions, Millie is desperate to keep her job as a term of her parole. She learns that years prior, Nina was institutionalized for trying to drown Cece and attempting suicide by overdose.At Nina's behest, Millie books tickets for the Winchesters to a Broadway musical and a hotel stay, but Nina denies asking her to do so. 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, and they have sex. They return home, and Millie realizes Nina knows she spent ten years in prison for killing a rapist classmate, and is nearly arrested when Nina reports her borrowed car as stolen. Nina finds the musical's playbill and threatens Millie, but Andrew defends her and demands that Nina leave. Andrew and Millie continue their romance; out of love, Millie decides to serve him breakfast in an heirloom china plate from Andrew’s mother. Enzo’s presence outside the door scares her and she breaks the heirloom china plate. Andrew shuns Enzo away, and calms Millie down, telling her to pick up the pieces, and requests her to give it to him, as he knows someone who can repair it. That night, Andrew asks why she didn’t wash the cut shards; Millie states that she didn’t want to get injured. He later brings Millie to the attic room, gets her drunk and locks her inside.
Celebrating her freedom from Andrew, Nina picks up Cece, explaining the truth in a letter to her daughter. She fell for Andrew while raising Cece as a young single mother, but early in their marriage, he revealed himself to be horrifically controlling. Andrew requested Nina to dye her brunette locks blonde. When she forgot to do so, 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, framing her for attempting to kill Cece and herself, and continued to torment her with confinement in the psychiatric hospital and the attic. Despite telling her version, no one else believed her story aside from Enzo, who tried to persuade Nina to leave him unsuccessfully. Determined to escape his abuse, Nina deliberately hired Millie, whom she knew Andrew would leave her for, and believed Millie could protect herself.
As punishment for breaking the china, Andrew gives Millie a shard and demands that she cut her stomach for each of the twenty-one pieces of the plate. She does so, but stabs him with a cheese knife hidden for her by Nina, locking him in the room instead. Ordering him to rip out one of his teeth with pliers, she breaks more china and threatens to set fire to the attic, forcing him to comply. When Cece suggests she save Millie, Nina sneaks into the house and unlocks the attic door, believing Millie is still trapped inside. Andrew attacks them, but Millie seems to escape, and he attempts to kill Nina after she refuses to resume their life together. Millie reappears and pushes Andrew off the staircase to his death, while Nina drops a lightbulb, hoping it will appear as if he fell while fixing the chandelier.
A police officer notices inconsistencies in Nina's story, but her sister was once engaged to Andrew; aware of his true nature, she rules his death an accident. After Andrew's funeral, Nina gives Millie a $100,000 check before leaving with Cece to start a new life. She recommends Millie's services to a friend, who indicates that her husband is abusing her, and Millie asks when she can start.
Cast
Production
The film is directed by Paul Feig and produced by Feig, Todd Lieberman, and Laura Fischer for Hidden Pictures. Sonnenshine's screenplay is based on the 2022 novel of the same name by Freida McFadden. In October 2024, Sweeney and Seyfried joined as leading actresses and executive producers alongside McFadden and Alex Young. Brandon Sklenar joined the cast that month, followed by Michele Morrone in December 2024. Elizabeth Perkins was also cast in the film.Filming
began on January 3, 2025, in New Jersey and wrapped in March 2025.Music
composed the film's score, marking his eighth collaboration with Feig.Release
The Housemaid was released in the United States on December 19, 2025.Home media
The Housemaid was released on VOD on February 3, 2026.Reception
Box office
, The Housemaid has grossed $120.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $189.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $309.8 million.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. 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. It held well in its second weekend, dropping just 19.5% to $15.3 million and finishing in fourth. The film made $15.1 million, $10.1 million, and $8.5 million in its third, fourth, and fifth weekends.
Critical response
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.TheWraps 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." 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." 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." 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.
In a negative review for Slant Magazine, Anzhe Zhang wrote, "The Housemaids twist is a doozy, but it falls just short of being a deconstruction of tradwife values."