The Housemaid

Paul Feig’s thriller goes wildly, watchably off the rails

Despite having cut his teeth making some of the best comedy of the last few decades with The Office (2005-2013), Parks and Recreation (2009-2015), Bridesmaids (2011), and Spy (2015), director Paul Feig is insisting on a career change. Since 2018 he’s been trying to break into the thriller genre with A Simple Favor (2018) and its sequel Another Simple Favor (2025). He now has delivered his biggest hit in the genre with The Housemaid (2025).

The Housemaid is adapted from the 2022 bestselling novel of the same name. We follow Millie (Sydney Sweeney), an ex-convict on parole, trying to hide her past to get a job as a live-in-maid for the wealthy Winchester family of Nassau, New York. However, in her situation of need, Millie is forced to suffer a mentally ill and irascible housewife Nina (Amanda Seyfried), who gaslights her and switches from warm and cuddly to cold and cruel at the flip of a switch. An oasis is the handsome husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) who shows Millie kindness and whose charm becomes dangerously alluring.

Feig has shown an ability to play with genre cliches in his comedies, be it the buddy cop The Heat (2013) or the spy actioner Spy. Yet, it’s difficult to grasp the tone he wants to set for their noir-like thrillers. You sense nods to Hitchcock and an aesthetic channeling of Douglas Sirk, yet A Simple Favor and The Housemaid also devolve into raucous soap operas. In fact, The Housemaid’s narrative seems to be checking the boxes of both the most recycled of Mexican telenovelas and saccharine Hallmark movies. The result is a whiplash of tones that is liable to leave viewers with neck pain. The jumble is constructed so messily, with an increasing disdain for consistency, tonal continuity, or any shred of realism that it becomes entertaining just to watch the shamble unfold. I could barely keep a straight face with each ensuing clichéd twist, or the voice over narration that is used in two scenes, never to be heard again.  

The curiosity of The Housemaid’s devolution into a filmic trainwreck is that it surpasses the singular tag of “bad movie” to don the “so bad it’s good” one instead. The film delivers the type of entertainment that soap operas do, where they are better enjoyed with friends, chuckling at creative decisions, rather than taking the story seriously. Sadly, it doesn’t seem that Feig wanted his film to come across that way, as it is not directed or edited with comedic rhythm in mind. Perhaps the American director simply doesn’t have the directing restraint to move into dramatic fare, and should instead lean into his comedic talents.

The confused directing comes across especially in Feig’s handling of actors, which was also apparent in A Simple Favor, where each performer seemed to be acting in completely different genres. In The Housemaid, Sweeney is playing her role as straight as she can, while Sklenar believes he’s in a Christmas Hallmark movie. Only Seyfried understands the tongue-in-cheek approach needed to survive through the script, delivering a perfectly over-the-top performance that would have made Thalia proud.

In the end, The Housemaid is a jumble of a movie, with conflicting tones, performances, and a laughable plot. Feig loses complete control of the direction, but in doing so, the spectacular chaos of the film becomes its own form of entertainment, and in its own way it kept me from looking at my watch once during the screening.  

5.9/10