Thanks to hits like 2011’s Bridesmaids and 2013’s The Heat, Paul Feig became a successful director of big-screen comedies. However, he shifted to thrillers via 2018’s A Simple Favor and he continues that trend with 2025’s The Housemaid.

Though seemingly overqualified for the job, Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) takes on a gig as live-in housekeeper for wealthy Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and young daughter Cece (Indiana Elle). On parole for manslaughter, Millie pursues this placement out of desperation and becomes grateful for this second chance.

However, this dream assignment turns into something more nightmarish when Nina shows extremely erratic behavior. Millie struggles to deal with these ups and downs as she can’t afford to lose this position.

I can’t claim Feig truly abandoned comedy, as 2019’s Last Christmas mixed laughs with melodrama. Also, though more in the thriller vein, A Simple Plan came with a fair amount of dark humor.

Still, Feig hasn’t directed a true comedy since the financial disappointment of 2016’s Ghostbusters reboot. I remain in the minority of viewers who actually really liked that one, but it clearly fell far short of both commercial and critical goals. I tend to suspect this left a mark on Feig and led him away from the brand of comedy he’d pursued for so long. It seems less than coincidental that Ghostbusters remains the last time to date that Feig worked with Bridesmaids stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, a surprising fact given McCarthy featured in all four of Feig’s flicks from 2011 to 2016.

I liked all of Feig’s “true comedies” and maintain a fondness for Feig’s work that goes back all the way to his work on the TV classic Freaks and Geeks. However, given that Housemaid made almost $395 million worldwide off a modest $35 million budget, I suspect Feig will stick with thrillers for the foreseeable future.

I can’t claim that Feig’s new path falters, as I liked Simple Favor and find Housemaid to offer reasonable pleasures. That said, this 2025 film doesn’t quite sizzle like I might hope.

Probably the biggest problem comes from Sweeney as the lead. While she offers an awfully sexy presence, she doesn’t display memorable acting skills.

Honestly, I can’t quite figure out how Sweeney has become such a star in Hollywood. Sure, she’s hot, but beautiful women aren’t in short supply out in LaLaLand, so I don’t really know why Sweeney seems to have captured the zeitgeist.

Sweeney’s success definitely doesn’t stem from her acting ability. As with seemingly all her projects, her performance her seems wooden and bland.

Perhaps to compensate, Seyfried borders on campy as potential antagonist Nina. Of course, the story reveals other layers as the movie progresses and we see the method behind Nina’s apparent madness, so Seyfried’s choices make more sense along the way.

Seyfriend does very well as her character evolves. She balances the various demands and turns into the best work of the bunch.

For reasons I can’t explain if I want to avoid spoilers, Andrew also goes through character changes, and Sklenar handles them fine. I don’t think he seems as charismatic as Andrew probably should, but he certainly looks the part and he manages to pull off the role acceptably well.

Outside of Sweeney’s dull performance, the movie’s other biggest issue stems from its fairly sluggish pace. We know we’ll find some Big Old Twists eventually, but the story takes an awfully long time to get there.

The 131-minute Housemaid probably would fare better at 105 minutes or so. In his commentary, Feig relates that it can be easier to adapt shorts stories into films rather than novels because the latter require so much omission.

I suspect Housemaid goes as long as it does in an effort to fit in as much of the book as possible. While I don’t think the movie truly drags, it can harp on some of the same beats too much and it just makes the viewer wait longer than necessary to get to the various plot curveballs.

Still, Feig delivers the material with enough flair to keep us engaged even during the slower moments. Although I don’t think Housemaid becomes a great thriller – and I prefer Feig’s Simple Favor - it winds up as a fairly intriguing piece.

The Housemaid appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Shot at 8K and finished at 4K, the end product looked terrific.

Sharpness consistently satisfied. Nary a sliver of softness materialized, so we got an image that felt accurate and precise.

No signs of jagged edges or shimmering appeared, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws remained absent.

The flick’s palette tended toward a low-key sense of ambers and blues. These looked well-rendered given the movie’s design choices.

Blacks felt dense and firm, while shadows came across as concise and smooth. Everything about the presentation succeeded.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack seemed positive but not memorable. The thriller lacked a lot of room for sonic delights.

Music became the most active participant, as the score and songs used the whole spectrum to good advantage. Most effects remained focused on ambience, though a thunderstorm and some more violent sequences added occasional pizzazz.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that always felt concise and natural. Effects became accurate and full, without distortion.

The songs and score sounded vivid and dynamic. Though never a particularly impressive soundtrack, the audio suited the story.

We find a mix of extras and locate two separate audio commentaries. The first comes from director Paul Feig, as he provides a running, screen-specific look at story/characters and changes from the source, cast and performances, music, sets and locations, effects and stunts, costumes, and related areas.

Feig proves chatty, though he also vamps quite a lot and stumbles some as he occasionally struggles to figure out what to say. Nonetheless, he presents a friendly personality and makes this a pretty engaging and informative track.

For the second track, we find Feig, producers Todd Lieberman and Laura Fischer, executive producer Carly Elter, director of photography John Schwartzman, composer Theodore Shapiro, editor Brent White, casting director Allison Jones, screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine, production designer Elizabeth Jones and costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus. All 11 sit together for this running, screen-specific view of story/characters and the adaptation of the source, the project’s path to the screen, cinematography and editing, locations and set design, music, costumes and connected topics.

Inevitably, the commentary repeats more than a little info from Feig’s solo piece. However, it still comes with plenty of new material and it also gets points because it holds together as orderly and coherent despite a huge roster of participants.

A few featurettes follow, and From Page to Panic spans 35 minutes, 32 seconds. It offers info from Feig, Elter, Lieberman, Sonnenshine, Kalfus, Elizabeth Jones, Allison Jones, author Freida McFadden, location manager Justin Kron, set decorator Paige Mitchell, SPFX technicians Kyle McCarthy and Ben Riedman, stunt coordinator Stephen Pope, and actors Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, and Indiana Elle.

The show covers the source novel and its adaptation, the project’s path to the screen, story/characters, cast and performances, what brought Feig to the film, costumes, sets and locations, some effects, and action/stunts. Inevitably the program repeats some info from the commentaries and we find too much happy talk, but “Panic” nonetheless becomes a pretty satisfying overview.

Secrets of the Winchester House lasts 11 minutes, 38 seconds. Here we find notes from Elizabeth Jones and Mitchell.

As the title implies, “Secrets” focuses on the details of the movie’s main location. We get some notes about the home in “Panic” but “Secrets” becomes a good expansion of these domains.

With A Peek Inside, we locate a two-minute, six-second reel that involves Feig, Sweeney, Seyfried, Sklenar, Morrone and McFadden as they offer a general recap. It exists as basic promo fodder.

In addition to trailers, we end with seven deleted scenes (8:17). These tend to add some filler and expansions of existing sequences.

We do get a little more about Millie’s prior life as well as a form of denouement for a supporting character. Although the scenes seem interesting, none needed to make an already over-long movie.

Released around Christmas, The Housemaid became a ‘counter-programming’ hit, as no one thinks of the holidays as a logical occasion for sex-related thrillers. Though it runs a little long, the movie still becomes a fairly involving little narrative, with plenty of twists along the way. The Blu-ray boasts excellent visuals, appropriate audio and a nice set of supplements. While I prefer Paul Feig as a comedy director, he nonetheless makes Housemaid a largely enjoyable tale.