MOVIE REVIEW: THE HOUSEMAID

 

Hoping for a fresh start, a young woman becomes a live-in maid for a wealthy couple who harbour sinister secrets.

Director: Paul Feig

Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins

Release Date: December 19, 2025

Genre: Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Mystery

Rated R for strong/bloody violent content, sexual assault, sexual content, nudity and language.

Runtime:  2h 11m

Review:

The Housemaid is a tawdry throwback to the psychosexual thrillers from the 90’s powered by a devilishly unhinged performance from Amanda Seyfried that covers up some of the film’s more glaring warts.  Paul Feig delivers a beautifully acclimated film that carries the sort visual polish you’d come to expect from a director of his talent.  There are bits and pieces of his own comedic/thriller A Simple Favor scattered throughout as he creates the affluent world the characters inhabit exemplified by Seyfried’s Nina Winchester who’s perpetually draped in white clothing.  After initially setting the stage of the well to do perfection Sydney Sweeney’s Millie is hired into, it doesn’t take long for the rather large cracks in the façade to start to reveal themselves.  The passive aggressive hell hole Sweeney’s character finds herself is peppered with psychological torture that she endures thanks to her checkered past.  The story is fun although it telegraphs a number of its “shocking” reveals early on especially for those with a decerning eye since the construction isn’t as clever as it thinks it is.    Sydney Sweeney is solid if uninspired in the lead role with her character proving to be the least interesting person onscreen at any given time.  Sweeney has proven she’s capable of pulling off strong performances but here she’s fighting some choppy writing which has her character go from overly gullible to brutally street smart on the turn of a dime.  It’s a shame since the character’s checked past offers up plenty to work with but the film doesn’t bother offering up any real depth to her which feels like a massive misstep.   Brandon Sklenar plays up the heartthrob role he’s established in his recent turns in 2024’s It Ends with Us and 2025’s Drop with general ease with makes his character easy to like especially early on.  Ultimately, this film belongs to Amanda Seyfried with her truly twisted turn as Nina Winchester who may or may not be utterly insane.  Seyfried chews the screen up with impressive enthusiasm as she channels Faye Dunaway’s Mommie Dearest at various points during the film as she tortures Sweeney’s Millie almost from the moment she settles into the house.  She so captivating that there’s a noticeable dip in energy whenever her character disappears from the screen especially during the increasingly ludicrous final act which almost crashes the entire film.  As is, The Housemaid plays like an amalgam of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Single White Female and Sleeping with the Enemy that struggles to ultimately struggles to find its own voice.  

B-

MOVIE REVIEW: SUBSERVIENCE

 

When his wife becomes sick, a struggling father buys a lifelike AI android named Alice to help with the housework. Things seem fine until Alice suddenly becomes self-aware and wants everything its new family has to offer, including the affection of its owner.

Director: S.K. Dale

Cast: Megan Fox, Michele Morrone, Madeline Zima,  Matilda Firth, Andrew Whipp

Release Date: September 13, 2024

Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for sexual content/nudity, language, some violence and brief drug material.

Runtime: 1h 35m

Review:

Subservience traffic in a bevy of well-worn tropes dealing with androids and AI in a B movie mashup of M3GAN paired with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.  S.K. Dale delivers a slick looking film that displays a nice bit of confidence behind the camera.  He does a solid job of creating a tangible near future world where these androids have become integrated into nearly every aspect of life.  Anyone who's familiar with the British show, Humans, might feel a sense of Déjà vu since both entities deal with similar conceits and themes.  It’s a consistent issue since the story rarely covers any new ground with thread having been done before making everything fairly predictable from start to finish.  There are a handful of intriguing ideas such as job specific androids being used in all aspects across everyday life and their effect on the human workforce, but it never engages with that in any meaningful way.  The domestic angle with Alice and her new family plays out exactly how you'd expect with some of it delving into some old school Cinemax territory.  Megan Fox is tasked with carrying large portions of the film something she does ably in a role perfectly suited for her.  Fox is clearly in her wheelhouse and she channels her Jennifer's Body character less the demonic possession.  This is the sort of role she could have easily coasted through on her looks, but she adds enough wrinkles to her performance to make the whole thing entertaining.  She's clearly having a great time and seems to have issue embracing some of the sillier elements of the story.  Unfortunately, everyone else plays it straight with dead serious performances which would work better if the story and characters weren't so painfully clichéd.  Subservience would have been better served if it'd followed M3GAN's lead and leaned into its campiness since it's not bringing anything fresh to the genre.  

C