- Date of Release: 19 December 2025 (1st January 2026 In India)
- Genre: Drama, Thriller
- Language: English
- Watch On: Theatres Only
The Housemaid
Introduction
The Housemaid is the film that you get when Abbas-Mustan’s Race (2008) has an intimate affair with Vikram Bhatt’s Inteha (2003), making this a campy love-child that is middling in every aspect. In other words, there are thrills which aren’t enough, there are twists that aren’t enough, and there are campy moment even though the drama doesn’t fully go on a ‘campy’ overdrive. And much of the issue can be traced back to its opening act when you are introduced to Millie (Sydney Sweeney) who seeks a residential household after being released from prison for a particular crime that was committed years ago. While the setting does threaten to be ominous with respect to the wealthy Winchester family household, the tone of the drama is completely at its extremes, particularly with respect to the two characters – Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew (Brandon Sklenar). Nina and Andrew are married and have a young daughter, but their extreme personalities don’t necessarily blend with the sombre mood created around them. I did feel that their traits were far too much in my face, as opposed to allowing the characters to seamlessly blend with the setting that in turn would have had a better payoff at the end.
Story & Screenplay
Based on a novel ‘The Housemaid’ by Freida McFadden and adapted for the screen by Rebecca Sonnenshine, The Housemaid can be labelled as a thriller that pays its campy homage to the thrillers of the 90s. Back in the day, the structure for a thriller had become more of a template wherein you have characters that you associate with, before a flip in the narrative turns their worlds around. The Housemaid chooses to adapt a similar trope at the start, tactfully following a timid Millie in the Winchester household, allowing the viewers space to absorb the ambience of the setting – be it the white walls that feel too perfect for comfort, or the spiralling staircase that is an ominous twisty metaphor in the making, or the little room up in the attic without a network that is an emblem of claustrophobia. And add to it, the varied personalities of Nina and Andrew – but ironically, this is what affects the drama the most.
<span;>In a spitting scene, you see a usually calm, composed and ever-smiling Nina go in a fit of rage after her hand-written notes of a PTA meeting go missing. In the same breath, you witness Andrew being the calming influence – quietly allowing her to steam out her anger while embracing her in his arms. I would label this scene as dramatic because it almost felt too hard in convincing the viewers on the traits of Nina and Andrew, both of which may or may not necessary be true. The hinge remained on taking their personalities on face-value, which as a viewer didn’t sit right for me. The tone needed to be grey, not black and white – something that would create doubts in the mind of Millie about Nina, rather than serving her a moment right in front of her eyes. Only then would a latter twist be more effective!
The same thumb rule did apply for Andrew also, a character who seemed to be far too perfect for me to question him. The fault here lay with his characterization that didn’t provide enough meat to create any sort of layers in the story. For most part of the narrative outside the third act, Andrew was this gentleman, a charming who would be the ideal candidate for Prince Charming in ‘any’ women’s life. An inch of greyness wouldn’t have hurt the narrative, even though the subtext of him being visibly frustrated with the antics of his wife Nina, seemed justifiable, while also making sense of his unusual advances towards Millie who began warming up to him too. This, while being on the back of multiple incidents strung together that tried hard to create a weird impression in the minds of the viewers about Nina and the antics of her past and present.
If you have grown-up on campy thrillers that may once have been your staple food (a nod to Abbas-Mustan and Vikram Bhatt), then you would almost be able to predict on point on what lies ahead. And yet credit where due, the transition of tone from an indifferent drama to a thriller was seamless – even as you are acquainted with the past lives of Nina, Millie and Andrew, wherein each one of them hold onto a secret. And this secret represents the other half of their characters that definitely works in the second hour given the shock value, but the sudden switch was my point of contention for the criticism directed towards the first act. Imagine if the characterization was understated, the impact of this ‘switch’ would have been significantly higher.
The slow transition of the drama from a regular thriller to a survival thriller isn’t bad either – with the elements of gore, violence and pain being integral to the plot in different capacities. Yet, the binary nature of the writing became once again a moment of criticism for me. My direct comparison would be with the twisty undertones exhibited in a film like Gone Girl (2014), wherein the morality of both protagonists was so skewed that it invariably accounted for the drama being twisty, even from a characterization standpoint. In the same breath, the issue here remained on how the endless possibilities of the drama were restricted by a moral compass that leaned towards a gender debate which wasn’t needed (I have no issues with what the eventual result was; THAT Character Deserved It). This wasn’t an It Ends With Us (2024) kind of a story, but its lineage towards it in the final act did result in a rather simplistic conclusion that failed to rise above its obvious tropes. The gender neutral lens was important in elevating the drama into a twisty zone, but that didn’t happen. And yet, the little outro at the end did compensate it to an extent with a sense of hope – hope that its future installments would end up being more twisty!
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues follow the familiar trope of being corny amidst the conversations that brew, something that felt in conjunction with the skewed tone of the drama. But having said that, the lines still were passable while not really sticking out like a sore thumb. The BGM is decent while doing its built in creating an ambience of intrigue. The cinematography is pretty good, particularly with the camera angles used to create the aura of the house while accounting for a sense of claustrophobia and indifference that was deliberately created. Even the execution of a particular sequence at the end was seamless from a technical standpoint, wherein the frames did create an element of thrill. The editing pattern is haphazard here in the first hour, almost giving an impression that the drama is an amalgamation of assorted scenes put together. But things change drastically in the second hour when the editing pattern incorporates faster cuts and some ultra-smooth transitions that is commendable to witness.
Director Paul Feig does a decent job here, often playing catchup after an underpar first act that featured tonal inconsistencies in the drama. While he handles the twists well, his major shortcoming was in the characterization that in-turn resulted in the drama being predictable with a twist that had a ‘lesser’ impact than it ought to have had. The direction remains above average here for this very reason.
Performances
The performances remain a bit of a mixed bag too by the members of the cast. The likes of Elizabeth Perkins as Evelyn, Michele Morrone as Enzo and Indiana Elle as Cecelia are a lesser impact on the drama because the writing doesn’t allow their characters to shape up properly. Brandon Sklenar as Andrew does a pretty good job here but I couldn’t help but think on how ‘two-dimensional’ the character was – almost operating in binaries with one-dimension dedicated to each hour. Amanda Seyfried as Nina starts on a very dodgy footing wherein you notice inconsistencies with her act that plays out in extremes. Perhaps had she controlled the pitch of her character early on, the impact would have been so much better because she increasingly gets better in the second and third acts.
Sydney Sweeney as Millie also comes alive in the third act but I couldn’t help but think on how blank she looked before that. It is the same problem that I have with an actor like Sara Ali Khan – the blank stares need ‘some expression’, they cannot just be abstract and blank. As a result, the emotional core of her character is compromised, something that doesn’t exactly get retrieved even when she finds form at the end.
Conclusion
The Housemaid is a middling campy thriller that doesn’t fully rise above its generic tropes, making it an above-average watch at best. On a side note, this film reminded me of Vikram Bhatt’s Inteha (2003) in many ways (ofcourse the character dynamics were different in both films). I wonder if Vikram Bhatt remembers this film of his too, though? Available in a theatre near you (in India from 1st January 2026 onwards).