The Housemaid film adaptation was pretty spot on to Frieda McFadden’s novel of the same name.
The movie, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, hit theaters on Friday, December 19, and viewers were shocked by those brutal twists. While readers were already privy to the secrets of The Housemaid, director Paul Feig still found a way to make things jarring for those who already knew what was coming.
Both the book and movie follow the story of a young housemaid named Millie (Sweeney), who moves into Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and Nina Winchester’s (Seyfried) home as hired help. However, she’s quick to find there are a lot of secrets within the family.
Warning: Spoilers below for The Housemaid.
Feig admitted that “it’s intimidating” to take something people love so much and turn it into a movie. But with McFadden’s approval, he and the cast released a movie that everyone will be talking about.
“The great thing is, it’s a great book and it’s really structured well for a movie. So it’s kind of perfect source material,” Feig told Newsweek earlier this month. “I think we got everything we needed from the book, and the greatest compliment of all was Freida McFadden, when she saw it, she said she thinks it’s better than the book. So that was a huge thing to hear from the author.”
Keep scrolling for the biggest changes from The Housemaid book to the movie:
The Ending
Perhaps the biggest change was the ending of the movie. “The ending [in the book] ends in the attic,” Feig told Newsweek, noting that his ending was different.
Both endings start out pretty much the same, revealing that Nina’s not actually crazy but just pretending to escape from her abusive husband Andrew. When Andrew makes Nina leave, he and Millie get hot and heavy. But she eventually disobeys him and gets locked in the attic. This is where things change a bit.
In the book, Millie finds pepper spray left in the attic, which she uses on Andrew. In the movie, it’s a knife and she stabs Andrew in the neck. Both instances include Millie leaving Andrew in the attic — but in the book, she leaves him there to die.
The movie, rather, takes things to another level by making Nina return to their home and save Millie from Andrew. However, they all get into a blood-filled fight, resulting in Millie pushing Andrew down the stairs and killing him.
The Andrew Hints
One thing the movie does a really good job of is hinting at Andrew being a psychopath. It seems like when reading the book, the twist comes as a major shock to the reader who had no idea that the perfect husband could actually be a raging lunatic.
The film focuses on Andrew’s obsession with perfection, often having him talk about his wife’s hair — more specifically, her roots. Later on in the film a flashback reveals that Andrew had previously punished Nina because her roots weren’t done.
Similarly, Nina and Andrew’s daughter, Cecilia, doesn’t say much to Millie in the book. But the movie version of Cecilia (Indiana Elle) warns Millie to stay out of the attic.
Andrew’s Punishments
In the book, Andrew has Millie balance three textbooks on her stomach for three hours as punishment for leaving his things strewn about the house.
In the movie, Andrew makes Millie carve 21 lines into her stomach with one of the shards of a plate that she broke.
Role Reversals
The book has Andrew’s mom, Evelyn, with a smaller role and their groundskeeper Enzo with a bigger one. The film makes a subtle switch, with Elizabeth Perkins appearing as Evelyn in more than one scene and Michele Morrone’s Enzo having less of a backstory.
Millie’s Arrest
At one point in the movie, Nina has Millie arrested for allegedly “stealing” her car. (Nina had previously given her permission to drive it.) In the book, there is a similar scene. However, there is no arrest, just Millie getting followed around a grocery store by a policeman.
