Freida McFadden’s hit 2022 novel The Housemaid is making its way to the big screen — and judging by the first trailer, it’s about to get very dark.
On Tuesday, September 16, Lionsgate unveiled the trailer for the psychological thriller, soundtracked by a haunting cover of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please.” Sydney Sweeney takes on the role of Millie, a live-in maid carrying secrets of her own, while Amanda Seyfried stars as Nina Winchester, her manipulative boss who may be hiding even darker truths.
The trailer wastes no time diving into the suspense. Millie (Sydney Sweeney) accepts the maid job, meets the Winchesters — Nina (Amanda Seyfried), her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and their daughter Cecilia (Indiana Elle) — and quickly realizes things are far from normal. Add Michele Morrone as the eerie groundskeeper Enzo, and suddenly the estate feels less like a home and more like a trap.
From there, the tension ramps up fast: flashes of knives, shattered glass smeared with blood, and doors slamming suggest Millie’s new gig is spiraling into danger.
As W Magazine notes, the synopsis teases that Millie “soon learns the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own” — a theme the trailer leans into heavily.
Fans were quick to light up the comments section after the trailer dropped on YouTube.
- “The attention to detail! As someone who has read the book, this trailer does justice. Nina’s hair, the attic and mini fridge, and white clothes everything! super excited.”
- “Here to watch Amanda Seyfried DEVOUR this role!.”
- “The house looks exactly how I pictured it honestly omg.”
- “I’ve read the book and you guys, the plot twist is gonna HIT you like a truck.”
Behind the camera, Paul Feig directs from a script by Rebecca Sonnenshine. Feig admitted to People earlier this year that adapting Freida McFadden’s bestseller was a daunting task: “Because it’s nerve-wracking…like, it’s easy to make something out of a book that’s not good — when a book’s really good, it’s like, oh boy.”
But Feig praised his leading women, calling Sweeney, 28, and Seyfried, 39, fearless in their performances. “They are both up for anything, and we had so much fun playing with all the twists and turns that the story takes these characters through. They both slipped into these challenging roles effortlessly and took full ownership of them. We couldn’t have had a better time together making this movie.”
The Housemaid hits theaters on December 19.
