Sydney Sweeney (left) and Amanda Seyfried in 'The Housemaid.' Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment The 1990s were a banner decade for guilty-pleasure trash, particularly the female-driven thrillers that popped up with dependable regularity. At the somewhat classier end of the spectrum were The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and Single White Female, while movies like Mortal Thoughts and Poison Ivy occupied the more lurid middle ground and howlers like the truly dreadful Hush landed at rock bottom - though let's be honest, who doesn't want to watch Jessica Lange as a Kentucky horse rancher go nuts and try to kill daughter-in-law Gwyneth Paltrow so she can steal her baby? As I suspected, nobody. Related Stories TV 'Euphoria' Drops Enlightening First Look at Main Cast in Season 3's Time Jump TV Amanda Seyfried to Star in 'Skinny Dip' TV Adaptation in the Works at Prime Video Anyone nostalgic for those blissfully ludicrous nights at the multiplex will get a kick out of The Housemaid, adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the novel by Freida McFadden, the nom de plume of a practicing brain surgeon, seriously. A lobotomy might be useful to buy all the shock twists and turns of this preposterous story and director Paul Feig too often holds back rather than fully leaning into its campy sensationalism and arch comedy. But holiday counterprogramming doesn't get much juicier. The Housemaid The Bottom Line Mop up that blood! Release date: Friday, Dec. 19Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Sydney Sweeney, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins, Indiana ElleDirector: Paul FeigScreenwriter: Rebecca Sonnenshine, based on the novel by Freida McFadden Rated R, 2 hours 11 minutes The highlight is Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester, a well-heeled Real Housewife of Great Neck, or Hell, who hires Sydney Sweeney's troubled young Millie Calloway as a live-in domestic to help out in her palatial home with cleaning, light cooking and nannying of Nina's creepy-cold 7-year-old daughter Cece (Indiana Elle), an untalented ballerina with a perennially sour demeanor. But after being all sunshine and smiles over tea and a charcuterie board while interviewing Millie and showing her around the immaculate house, Nina turns increasingly psychotic once her new help moves in. Seyfried's saucer eyes take on the glazed but crazed look of a real-life M3GAN as she tears up the house in a fury and starts gaslighting Millie in demeaning ways that make the other viper moms in Nina's PTA circle look like angels. Without giving too much away, Millie doesn't need glasses but wears them to look serious, though she's slow to pick up on the danger signals of the Winchesters' groundskeeper, Enzo (Michele Morrone). She's on a conditional release from prison with five years left on a sentence we'll learn about later. But she's been living in her car and parole terms require her to have a job and an address. She's mildly concerned by the scratch marks on the inside of her tiny attic bedroom door and by Nina's erratic, controlling behavior, constantly contradicting herself even when Millie follows her instructions to the letter. But Nina has her in a bind and she knows it. Seyfried and Sweeney play the class differences with relative subtlety, though the same can't be said for those PTA moms, who drop clanging hints about Nina's past mental instability, gossiping away as if Millie were not even in the room. Nina's handsome husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) is a more ambiguous figure, seeming to offer apologetic support to compensate for his wife's craziness, though his obsession with staying on top of her hair appointments to get her roots touched up points to underlying weirdness. As much as Millie tries to focus on the job requirements, she's not indifferent to Andrew's seeming flirtation, as indicated by an erotic dream. There's no ambiguity about his doting ice-queen mother (Elizabeth Perkins), a WASP monster who sniffs at her daughter-in-law's homemaking skills. Likewise Nina's lax dress code for her maid, who favors skimpy crop tops with lots of perky cleavage. Mother Winchester's bestowal on Andrew of the heirloom family dinnerware is a good sign that precious porcelain will be smashed. While Seyfried is a hoot with Nina's screaming fits and whiplash turns between acts of kindness and scalding rage, Sweeney, it must be said, is kind of dull in the early action. Millie mostly nods in mute acquiescence at the unreasonable accusations and demands of her boss, quickly learning that trying to speak up for herself is futile. But the actress is given more to run with as the story gets increasingly unhinged and allegiances are formed and promptly shattered, allowing Millie to fight back. It's impossible to say much more without spoiling the outrageous surpr