The Housemaid

Paul Feig films Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel from a script by Rebecca Sonnenshine and rests the whole thriller on one room: the attic bedroom Millie is given has a sealed window and a door that locks from the outside. The narration changes hands at the midpoint, when a letter Nina writes to her young daughter retells the household from her side and gives the scenes already watched a second meaning. The Great Neck mansion was in fact assembled in New Jersey, with shooting in January 2025 around Ridgewood, East Hanover and Montclair. Feig brought his comedy crew across as well: Theodore Shapiro, who wrote the score, had already scored the director’s previous seven features, from Spy through to Another Simple Favor. Against a budget of 35 million dollars the film took more than 400 million worldwide, held its second weekend to a drop under 20 percent, and won best book to screen adaptation at the Astra Film Awards. A sequel dated to December 2027 will adapt the second book in the series. A good fit if you treat the midpoint handover of the narrator, and the rebuilding of the first hour, as the real trick. Not for anyone who will find the confinement, the locked door and the domestic power games drawn out.