Our long, national nightmare is over and, after six weeks, we finally have another Sydney Sweeney movie! It was touch-and-go there for a while, but we persevered, somehow. Even though it was only last month that I wrote about Sweeney’s Christy, in which I mentioned how everyone feels legally obligated to have an opinion about her, it feels like it has been ten years since saying that. Due to her pop culture saturation, you could almost hear the exasperation in audiences when the trailer for The Housemaid played in front of movies, as the sound of our collective eyes rolling drowned out the dialogue. Well, even if you feel a bit burnt out on the actor, The Housemaid provides the welcome antidote: Amanda Seyfried! The pair of performers delivers the exact dynamic needed to elevate this domestic thriller to something very watchable and very cuckoo, even if the run time (131 minutes!) causes the narrative to lose steam.

The wealthy Nina (Seyfried) is looking to hire a nanny to clean the house and watch over her daughter, and Millie (Sweeney) is in desperate need of a fresh start. These two find each other and Millie is hired as a live-in nanny, with Nina’s hunky husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) catching Millie’s eye. Once the job starts, though, Millie quickly realizes that Nina isn’t what she appears to be on the surface, flipping back and forth between being a sweet, caring mother to a manic, tantrum-throwing monster. Still, Millie is desperate and can put up with anything, but as Millie ingratiates herself more into this family’s life, Nina’s outbursts only get more unpredictable, until eventually … you know what? I’m gonna stop right there!

The Housemaid is based on the novel by Freida McFadden, an author with a penchant for delivering pulpy, unpredictable narratives. As someone who doesn’t read many domestic thrillers (or really, anything, I don’t know how to read), the bonkers twists and turns this story takes kept me fully entertained. Someone more in tune with the formula of these stories might not be as engaged, and some of these twists you can see coming from a ways away, but this narrative is much more deranged than what the trailers make the movie out to be.

Have I mentioned how much Amanda Seyfried rocks? She’s one of those actors who, no matter what they’re in, they elevate the whole experience, and The Housemaid is no different. Whether she’s the pretentious, privileged mother or getting to showcase her passive aggression (or active aggression), it’s truly a delight to see Seyfried just going for it. Having only seen Drop, I’m not fully aware of Sklenar’s talents, but he fully sold the too-good-to-be-true stud that the movie needed to help kick off the narrative. Sweeney, who switches from the meek and desperate woman needing a break to the sexy, sultry woman getting a little too familiar with Andrew, is mostly effective, eliciting empathy from the audience when necessary and making us shout at the screen when she makes terrible decisions. The trio is talented and commits to the twisted tale being told, which, in lesser hands, might have felt like your average Lifetime movie.

Director Paul Feig‘s career has been … interesting. Movies like Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Spy showcased his comedic talents, but when he ventured into tentpole territory, his Ghostbusters got a bit out of hand. Mind you, I think the 2016 Ghostbusters is a very funny movie, but the necessary fantastical elements didn’t totally work for me. Getting back to basics, his A Simple Favor was a welcome surprise, as it was a domestic thriller with talented actors and enough comedy to keep the experience light. More recent efforts, like Last Christmas, Jackpot!, and Another Simple Favor haven’t quite been the right showcase of his talents, and The Housemaid is another experience where the material itself feels like it spun out of control. Thanks largely to the cast, the campy, pulpy heart of the story shines through, with the movie never taking itself too seriously, it’s just that the overall movie is too much movie. Maybe it is due to Feig’s devotion to the source material that we got multiple teases about how Nina might not be who she seems, or how Andrew might not be who he seems, or how Millie might not be who she seems, but the inclusion of all of these foreshadowing moments make for an exhausting journey. It’s just too much movie for too little story.

Much to my surprise, The Housemaid is mostly, dare I say, a “hoot,” and it’s nice to see Feig trying to bring back erotic thrillers like Fatal Attraction or The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (especially after how disappointing this year’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle remake was). It’s shocking that we don’t get more movies starring sexy people being sexy and then flipping a switch to be psychopaths, since it’s such a reliable formula for an entertaining movie. My audience was cheering and jeering at all the right times, confirming what a crowdpleaser a movie like this can be. As someone more drawn towards horror, there were even enough unsettling ideas to satiate me, despite not being a full-blown tale of terror. Had the narrative shown a bit more constraint to make for a more efficient storyline, it would absolutely have been one of my more enjoyable cinematic experiences of the year, but as it stands, I’ll wait for the home video release to fast-forward through many of the foreshadowing moments.

Wolfman Moon Scale