BookTok girlies, unite! This is your movie of the holiday season. The Housemaid checks all the boxes.

Adaptation of a favorite book. ✔️

A cast that is to die for. ✔️

Absolutely guilty pleasure full of gasps, twists, and a shocking ending. ✔️ ✔️ ✔️

Whether you’ve read Freida McFadden’s mega-bestseller or not, Paul Feig’s take on this page-turner is going to have you (literally) squealing scene after scene after scene. Amanda Seyfried puts on a horrifyingly good show as the wealthy Nina Winchester who is seeking a housemaid. In steps Millie—played by Sydney Sweeney—who has a rough past and is desperate for a fresh start. The male lead is the inescapably handsome and charming Brandon Sklenar who serves as a stabilizing presence… at least in the beginning.

 

At first, Millie appears to have stepped into a dream come true as Nina shows her around her sprawling estate. But when she walks into her first day, the table gets flipped and all hell breaks loose fast. From wall-shaking tantrums executed brilliantly by Seyfried to backstabbing, jealousy and gaslighting galore, it feels like a familiar tale. One where the meek maid will likely have to take on her female counterpart. As an inevitable affair unfolds between the beautiful young employee and Mr. Winchester, you get a sneaking suspicion that there’s actually more to this tale. And indeed the plot does a complete mid-story 180 and everything becomes deliciously wild and unpredictable. In the sexy, deadly, and dangerous second half, not even readers will be able to guess how the story concludes.

Mostly because… they changed the ending. But don’t be nervous our bookish friends, even the author herself approves.

Photo Credit: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate

McFadden told People:

“I just thought the end was so exciting and it really made the whole thing go out with a bang,” the author said. “I can’t give out any details about it, but I just loved it.”

In a story that focuses on power dynamics, wealth, abuse and manipulation, you wouldn’t expect an occasional chuckle, but it does indeed speak to the acting and script that with blood being spilled, they still got in some laughs. The campy nature of it brings a Scream-like quality to a dark story. One where you feel that familiar tension and release that makes a film like this so consumable. You get sucked into the story and leave with that pulse-pounding joy of having been entertained that feels rare nowadays. Pouring out of the packed theater, the crowd was roaring with conversation. Audience members clapped and yelled “yes” throughout the film and you just get that sense of old(er)-school cinema delight that comes from being fully pulled into a story without the need to take anything too terribly serious. Though the social commentary is there, and handled well within the format, there wasn’t a lingering heaviness—just a satisfying sense of fictional justice.

Photo Credit: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate

The star of the show is absolutely Seyfried whose performances when at her peak meltdowns are so frightening you can hardly remember that Karen from Mean Girls is lurking somewhere in there too. After the real-life celebrity dramatics overshadowed the adaptation of It Ends With Us, it was also a pleasure to have Sklenar in a book-to-screen role that folded him back into the bookish world without all the outside noise.

Photo Credit: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate

While there’s nothing Christmas-y about this movie, it hits all the right notes for a holiday season release. Propulsive, seductive, over-the-top. It isn’t meant to be a highly cerebral thought piece. The Housemaid takes you on a ride and then lets you off with your hair disheveled and your heart pounding.

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

Millie Calloway is a woman with a troubled past who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper with a wealthy family. At first, the job seems like a fresh start, but Millie soon realizes there’s something unsettling beneath the surface of the elegant Winchester household. As she becomes entangled in the family’s secrets and chaos she has to navigate danger and uncertainty while trying to survive.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon