The Housemaid premiered at the Axa Equitable Center in New York City on December 2, 2025, and was released in the United States by Lionsgate on December 19, 2025. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised Feig's direction and the performances of the cast (particularly Seyfried), as well as the film's plot twists and sense of fun.
Plot
Desperate to find a job while on parole, Millie Calloway lies on her resume to become the live-in maid of the wealthy Winchester family in Great Neck, Long Island. Her room is an attic room with a window that does not open, and a door that locks from the outside. Nina Winchester, the mother and wife of the family, shows signs of severe mental illness, and repeatedly puts Millie in double bind situations. Millie learns from neighbors that years prior, Nina attempted to end her daughter Cecelia "Cece"'s life by drowning her, and her own by overdosing.
Nina asks Millie to arrange a weekend in the city for Nina and her husband Andrew to see a Broadway musical and stay in a hotel. Millie makes the arrangements, only for Nina to deny having asked her to do that, stating the cost will be deducted from her paycheck. Nina is occupied that weekend, so Millie and Andrew secretly agree to attend the show together after Andrew is unable to get the tickets refunded. After enjoying the show, eating out, and checking into the hotel, Millie realizes she has missed many angry texts from Nina, including one firing her. She goes into Andrew's room to show him the texts, and they end up sleeping together. After their return home, Nina finds a Playbill from the show, leading to a fight where Andrew demands Nina leave. She does, and Andrew and Millie begin living together as a couple. One morning, Millie is preparing breakfast when she accidentally breaks an heirloom china plate. Andrew reassures her that it is okay and can be fixed, and she cleans up the mess and puts all the broken china in a plastic bag, only for him to later lock Millie inside her room.
Nina is shown happy to be leaving, and explains her past in a letter to Cece. Early in their relationship, after a minor dispute, Andrew tricked her into entering the attic storage room (later Millie's room) before locking her inside. Andrew demanded that, before he free her, Nina pull one hundred strands of hair out of her scalp, follicles still attached. He then leaves her with only three small bottles of water. After she did as instructed, Andrew demanded she do it again, claiming one lacked the follicle. When he finally let her go, he brought her a small, drugged bottle of water she drank immediately before running to see Cece. Nina then passed out, whereupon Andrew staged events to appear as if Nina attempted to kill Cece and then herself. Nina was subsequently sent to a psychiatric hospital and was kept there until she falsely confessed. Nina intentionally hired Millie knowing that Andrew would romantically pursue her and leave Nina for her, believing Millie—having been charged with murder (though only convicted of manslaughter)—capable of protecting herself against him.
Back in the present, Andrew tells Millie she is being punished for breaking and not washing the china. He gives her a piece of broken china and demands she deeply cut her stomach 21 times (matching the number of shards) before he will free her. After she does, Andrew enters the room to let her out, but Millie stabs him in the neck with a cheese knife Nina stashed there for her. After a struggle, she locks him in the room, forcing him to rip out one of his teeth with pliers while she breaks more china.
Meanwhile, Nina is preparing to leave for good, but returns to the house on Cece's suggestion to rescue Millie. Seeing the light on in the attic and assuming Millie is locked inside, she sneaks in and unlocks the door before Millie can stop her. Andrew attacks her and Millie, but Millie seems to escape. After Nina refuses to resume her life with Andrew he attempts to kill her again, before Millie reappears and pushes him over the edge of a spiral staircase, killing him. Nina drops a light bulb on him to make it appear an accidental death.
Investigating the incident, policewoman Jessica Connors notices inconsistencies in Nina's story, but knowing what happened to Andrew's first fiancée, her sister, she does not investigate further. After Andrew's funeral, Millie returns, and Nina gives her a large check through which to start a new life. Millie later attends another housemaid interview. The interviewer says she was recommended to her by Nina, and indicates that her husband is abusing her. Millie replies by asking when she can start working.
Theodore Shapiro composed the film's score, marking his eighth collaboration with Feig.[15]
Release
The Housemaid was released in the United States on December 19, 2025.[8]
Reception
Box office
As of December29,2025[update], The Housemaid has grossed $54.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $8.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $62.3 million.[4][3]
In the United States and Canada, The Housemaid was released alongside Avatar: Fire and Ash, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, and David, and was projected to gross $20–25 million from 3,015 theaters.[2] The film made $8 million on its first day, including $2.3 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $19 million, finishing in third behind Fire and Ash and David.[16]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 74% of 163 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "A sly throwback to the lurid thrillers that used to dominate multiplexes, The Housemaid cleans up nicely thanks to its wicked sense of fun and a delightfully unnerving performance from Amanda Seyfried."[17]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[18] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend the film.[16]
TheWrap's William Bibbiani gave the film a positive review and wrote, "The Housemaid has its twists, and you'll probably see some of them coming a mile off, even if you don't know exactly how the secrets will be revealed or what form the danger will take. On more than one occasion, the twist is that The Housemaid is even weirder and funnier than you expect — and that's a welcome surprise."[19] Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph gave a four stars rating out of five for the film, stating, "This is a full-tilt throwback to "erotic thriller" tropes from the 1990s."[6]Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "The Housemaid is a delightful hall of mirrors in which reality turns out to be subject to infinite modification."[20]
In a negative review for Slant Magazine, Anzhe Zhang wrote, "The Housemaid's twist is a doozy, but it falls just short of being a deconstruction of tradwife values."[21]
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