The Housemaid review
By Joel Humphries · Watched 12.18.25
★★★★ 4 / 5
Spoiler-free review
The Housemaid begins as a wonderfully tense domestic contest between a woman and her employee, each probing boundaries and trying to control the household, before evolving into a smarter psychological thriller than I expected. Amanda Seyfried gives her best performance in years, Sydney Sweeney matches her and Brandon Sklenar knowingly embodies the handsome dime-store-novel husband placed between them. The characters have enough depth to keep the film from becoming disposable twist machinery, although those turns remain a major pleasure. Avoid advance details; this is much more rewarding when the house reveals itself room by room.
Full review — contains spoilers
The was is a lot of fun, and it wound up being smarter and more thoughtful than I was expecting. It begins as a tense domestic back-and-forth between a woman and her housekeeper, and that stretch is very entertaining, with both characters testing boundaries and trying to gain the upper hand. As it goes on, the tone gradually shifts into something more of a psychological thriller.
The characters here have more depth than you usually get in a film like this, and Sweeney and Seyfried both really shine in their roles.
Amanda Seyfried gives her best performance in years. It was satisfying to watch her anchor a story like this alongside Sydney Sweeney, and the two of them really carry the film’s uneasy, domestic tension.
Brandon Sklenar plays and looks the part of the handsome Hallmark-movie/dime-store-novel husband archetype here, essentially the film’s designated thirst trap for the female leads to fight over, although it does not ultimately play out the way you might expect from that genre.
I highly recommend this one. If you plan to see it, try to avoid spoilers ahead of time. The twists are part of the experience, and the movie rewards going in with as little advance detail as possible.