A Empregada

In general, the story was pretty good. It was a decent thriller with some jump, scare moments, some gruesome body stuff and a pretty good twist. It also reflected the realities of mental health and clingy relationships. I've heard some complain about the pacing towards the middle/end but in my opinion, the pacing was fine. It didn't feel drawn out and it ended exactly when it should've.

The characters themselves were pretty good. Sydney Sweeney did a decent job. She's not gonna win a Grammy for her performance, but she played her role well of the innocent but beautiful woman and has a good character arc.

I really did like how they used music and different camera angles to set a very tense tone.

Overall, it's in decent movie with some good tense moments and a pretty good story.

The Housemaid arrives with a curious mix of expectations and skepticism. Sydney Sweeney's recent box office outings haven't exactly set the world on fire, and opening opposite the latest Avatar installment doesn't do the film any favors commercially. Going in, expectations are understandably tempered. But surprisingly, The Housemaid doesn't take long to find its footing and when it does, it leans hard into its psychological thrills.

The real engine of the film is Amanda Seyfried, who delivers a chillingly unhinged performance as Nina Winchester, a wealthy housewife whose polished exterior begins to fracture almost immediately. Seyfried plays Nina with a simmering instability... her smiles linger too long, her outbursts hit without warning, and her behavior steadily escalates from eccentric to outright disturbing. It's one of those performances where you're constantly bracing for the next emotional whiplash.

Sydney Sweeney stars as Millie Calloway, a young woman with a troubled past who takes a live-in housekeeping job out of sheer necessity. Millie is observant, cautious, and quietly unsettled by Nina's erratic behavior, but her fragile position in life makes walking away impossible. Sweeney's performance is restrained, sometimes almost too much so, but that muted quality works early on as Millie tries to survive rather than confront what's happening around her.

As expected, Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar) enters the equation, and the film follows a familiar erotic-thriller path: lingering looks, late-night drinks, and one bad decision that sends Nina spiraling. At this point, The Housemaid feels like it's heading toward a predictable third-act meltdown.

That's where the film earns its credit.

Instead of saving its biggest twist for the finale, The Housemaid flips the script near the end of the second act, shifting the narrative focus squarely onto Millie. From that moment on, the film becomes something darker and far more interesting. The power dynamics change, motivations are recontextualized, and Millie's character steps fully into the spotlight.

While this isn't Sydney Sweeney's strongest individual performance, her chemistry with Brandon Sklenar is what ultimately elevates the film. Together, they give the latter half of The Housemaid a sharper edge, grounding the psychological turns in something more emotionally believable. Their scenes add tension without relying solely on shock value, allowing the story's darker implications to breathe.

Director Paul Feig, stepping away from comedy, handles the genre shift with confidence. The film is sleek, intimate, and deliberately uncomfortable, leaning into paranoia and emotional manipulation rather than outright violence. It may not reinvent the erotic thriller, but it understands the genre well enough to play with audience expectations.

The Housemaid isn't flawless, and it won't silence every criticism aimed at Sweeney's recent career trajectory. But thanks to Amanda Seyfried's standout performance and a well-timed narrative twist, it's far more compelling than it initially appears.

Homeless, jobless and just released from a ten year prison sentence for manslaughter Millie (Sydney Sweeney) accepts an unexpected position as a housemaid in the wealthy Winchester household in Nassau, Long Island. The behaviour of mother of one Nina (Amanda Seyfried) then becomes increasingly erratic and abusive towards Millie at the same time as a relationship starts to develop between Millie and Nina's husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar). Desperate not to lose her job, which carries the risk of a return to gaol, Millie is taken on a terrifying psychological rollercoaster ride in which seemingly nothing is as it first appears. Filmed in New Jersey this 2025 feature film is a psychological mystery thriller based on the novel by Freida McFadden (as adapted for the screen by the hilariously named Rebecca Sonnenshine), and directed by Paul Feig, having the same kind of twisting and turning plot as Feig's impressive 'A Simple Favour'. Visceral, contrived, at times unconvincing, more than a touch operatic, tinged with occasional humour, and extremely manipulative as a story (one of the film's main themes of course is manipulation) the film deals with a number of themes and issues including gender, class, silent hidden victims (whether through exploitation in employment or domestic partner abuse), and the socially damaging effects of the so called 'justice system' (stigma, discrimination, amongst other things) and mental health system (the common problem of misdiagnosis - and worse - by doctors). And like any good thriller of this sort it saves one of it's twists til the end, involving Andrew's mum Evelyn (Elizabeth Perkins).

I went into this film not having read the book beforehand, so I went into it without knowing all the twists and turns. And from perspective I can say that it is a really good thriller with well executed twists and reveals The psychological aspects of the film is also really well done at making mentally tense moments carry out to the audience, making the audience experience the uncomfortable feeling of being gaslit and manipulated.

The main cast also delivers really solid performances. Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney have excellent chemistry on screen and they both play really well against each other.

My only problem with the film is Michele Morrone's character, who simply did not work for me. He felt out of place, didn't do much, and it wasn't really clear of why he was there how his character came into the picture of the plot.

But all in all this is a great film for people who like a good, well executed thriller.

This film is good, entertaining, solid, and cheesy fun, with just enough serious and surprisingly complex storylines to appeal to both mainstream audiences and lighter film critics. It builds steadily toward a crescendo--perhaps more than one-with a handful of well-timed twists and turns that should satisfy popcorn-loving moviegoers from college age to adulthood.

None of the performances are likely to earn an Academy Award, but the cast does a credible job portraying desperate, flawed, and occasionally unhinged characters. The film is helped along by its beautiful setting, striking home, and an ensemble of attractive actors, which carry it through a few moments where the plot flirts with jumping the shark on believability.

Still, enough thought and structure have gone into the screenplay to make it feel like one of the twist-heavy domestic dramas of past decades, rather than a throwaway thriller. The pacing holds, the stakes escalate,& the film largely earns its moments of excess.