If you enjoyed “A Simple Favor,” “Another Simple Favor,” “Drop,” “Blink Twice,” “Strange Darling,” “Oldboy” or “The Gift,” you’ll dig “The Housemaid.” It’s a pressure-cooker psychological thriller with a surefire degree of shock and awe and powerhouse performances by the three leads.
Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) is released on parole and desperately looking for a job. Millie applies for a live-in housemaid role with the Winchester family.
A well-heeled family consisting of a successful business owner and handsome husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar, “Drop”), impossibly chic and coiffed housewife Nina (Amanda Seyfried, “Letters to Juliet"), along with their little girl, Cecilia (Indiana Elle). Their stately home is enviably immaculate and stylishly decorated.
Millie was sure that she wouldn’t get hired due to her checkered past, but surprisingly, she’s hired. Nina really needs someone to maintain her home and help around the house, as she and her husband are trying to have a second child.
The attic is transformed into a cozy little nest for Millie. She’s allowed to use the amenities in the house and is provided with a credit card to pay for household expenses.
Shortly after Millie started, it’s clear that the picture-perfect illusion is shattered. The switch is startling and it makes you wonder how appearance can really be that deceiving.
As Millie is performing her day-to-day routines of cleaning, cooking, dusting, tidying up, organizing, grocery shopping and transporting Cecilia, she notices the veneer of perfection suddenly begins to chip away and it reveals something far darker.
There have been gossips about Nina among the ladies within the elite social circle, but they all appear nice to her face. And people are certainly very complimentary of Andrew, as he’s a very devoted, caring husband and pillar of the community. Cecilia, well, she has quite a personality and knows a bit more than she looks. Then there’s the suspicious-looking groundskeeper, Enzo (Michele Morone, "Another Simple Favor"), who’s always lurking around.
Unhinged incidents reveal sinister secrets and minacious lies. Gaslighting, manipulation, deception, power trip, control and entrapment are just a start. The air is thick with suspicion and tension, and you don't know if another destructive shoe is going to drop.
When patterns emerge and you think you know what’s going on and try to predict what’s going to happen, you will either end up wrong or the end result will still be unbelievable.
The key events transpire will shock you to the core. Diabolical directions thwart life plans. The closed-door twists continue to flip the narrative right up till the very end.
This is one of those films where the less you know, the better. When you watch the trailer, whatever you think is happening is not what you think it is.
If you think that “A Simple Favor” and “Another Simple Favor” (directed by the same director here, Paul Feig) are wild and twisted, wait until you see “The Housemaid.” Harrowingly mind-blowing, “The Housemaid” will leave you wholly gobsmacked.
