Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney star in a mostly faithful adaptation of Freida McFadden’s 2022 book, with a few noteworthy exceptions.

How The Housemaid movie alters the book’s storyline, including its shocking twist ending

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney star in a mostly faithful adaptation of Freida McFadden's 2022 book, with a few noteworthy exceptions.

By Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff is an award-winning journalist and staff writer at ** with over 12 years of experience covering all facets of the entertainment industry.

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December 19, 2025 3:00 p.m. ET

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Amanda Seyfried as Nina Winchester and Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in 'The Housemaid'. Credit:

Courtesy of Lionsgate

**This article contains all the spoilers for *The Housemaid*.**

Turning a bestselling novel as twisty as Freida McFadden's 2022 thriller *The Housemaid* into a successful film is no small feat.

Screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine and director Paul Feig had the unenviable task of preserving the source material's shocks and thrills for audiences unfamiliar with the book, while also keeping things fresh for fans of the original.

The book, like the movie adaptation, follows Millie (Sydney Sweeney), a struggling young woman with a violent past, who hopes for a fresh start when she takes a job as a live-in housemaid for an affluent couple, Nina and Andrew Winchester (Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar). But all is not as it seems inside their suburban estate, and what seems like a dream job quickly devolves into a nightmare.

Though a mostly faithful adaptation, the movie does take some liberties, especially with its murderous ending. Ahead, ** runs down the biggest differences between the book and the film.

Housewife from hell

In both the book and the movie, Nina is an overbearing boss whose gaslighting and cruel mind games become increasingly unhinged.

At one point in the novel, Nina messes with Millie while she's out food shopping, anonymously calling the grocery store to accuse her maid (who she knows is on parole) of shoplifting. In a similar scene in the movie, Nina gives Millie her car to go shopping, then reports it stolen. When Millie comes out of the store, she's arrested and only released when Andrew intervenes.

Dealing with Nina's abuse leads Millie to form a bond with Andrew, who often comes to her defense against his wife. Eventually, they have an affair.

But when Millie wakes up one day and finds herself locked in the attic bedroom, she realizes that Andrew is actually the abuser in the family. For years before her arrival, he'd used this room as a prison, locking Nina inside whenever she displeased him.

It turns out that all the terrible things Nina did to Millie were part of her desperate plan to save herself and her daughter from Andrew. Knowing he would never let her go willingly, she purposefully drove him into the arms of a young, beautiful woman, hoping Millie would replace her as the object of his cruel obsessions.**

Brandon Sklenar as Andrew Winchester in 'The Housemaid'.

Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate

Monster mother-in-law

Andrew's adoring, uptight mother, Evelyn (Elizabeth Perkins), has a more prominent role in the film than in the book, further antagonizing Nina while also providing a deeper backstory for Andrew. In the book, she appears only in flashbacks and at the very end, for Andrew's funeral.

Evelyn's prized china also plays a role in the film. Andrew first locks Millie in the attic as punishment for accidentally breaking a dish from the set. Later, in one of the movie's most satisfying scenes, Millie locks Andrew in the attic and tortures him by loudly smashing each plate. Sadly, there's no china in the book.**

Michele Morrone as Enzo in 'The Housemaid'.

Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate

The sexy gardener

Enzo (Michele Morrone) has a much more critical role in the book than in the film. In both versions, he's a hot, Italian landscaper who tries to help Nina and Millie escape. His sister died at the hands of a man like Andrew, so he takes it all very personally.

In the book, Millie tries to seduce him, to no avail. Enzo and Nina, however, *do* have sex and become romantically involved. And it's Enzo who convinces Nina to check on Millie and save her at the end, whereas in the movie, it's Nina's daughter, Cece (Indiana Elle), who suggests they can't leave without making sure Millie is okay.

When Nina and Cece make their escape to California in the book, Enzo decides he cannot go with them and, at Nina's request, stays behind to keep an eye on Millie — none of which happens in the film. Enzo makes one final appearance at the end of the novel via text to wish Millie good luck at her next job interview.

Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in 'The Housemaid'.

Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate

The bloody ending

This is where the filmmakers took the most liberty with the source material. In both versions, Andrew dies at the hands of Millie, who, we learn, has a history of violence against men who are violent against women — and Nina helps her cover it up. Then, after setting Millie up with another abused woman who needs her "housemaid" (a.k.a. murder) services, Nina leaves for California with Cece (and Andrew's money).

However, the film and the novel reach these resolutions in different ways. Here's how it plays out in each:

On the page

In the novel, when Millie reads some books she's not supposed to, Andrew punishes her by locking her in the attic, depriving her of water, and making her balance the heavy books on her abdomen for hours.

When she finally exacts her revenge by tricking him into the attic, she makes him balance those same books on his, uh, crotch. She keeps moving the goalposts, making him do it for longer and longer periods of time, before going to bed. The next day, she tells him to pull out one of his teeth — but, after all of that, she still refuses to give him water, and he ultimately dies of dehydration.

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When Nina arrives, she finds Andrew dead in the attic, but decides she can't go through with her plan of letting Millie take the fall for it. So, she calls the police and tells them that Millie had the week off and that Andrew must have gotten locked in by accident.

Luckily, the detective assigned to the case reveals he is the father of Andrew's ex-fiancée Kathleen, and has been trying to take him down for ruining his daughter's life. He tells Millie and Nina that his friend, the coroner, will agree with their version of events.

At the funeral, Andrew's mom, Evelyn, tells Nina she knows about the missing teeth, but then shocks her by revealing that when Andrew was a child, she pulled out one of his baby teeth with pliers. Still, she says, he never learned the lesson: you lose your privilege to have teeth if you don't take care of them. She then thanks Nina for teaching him and leaves.

The novel ends with Millie interviewing to be a housemaid for a different woman, who reveals bruises and ominously fingers a knife, insinuating that she'd like to hire Millie to take care of her own abusive husband as she did for Nina.

Sydney Sweeney's Millie eats a sandwich after inflicting some damage on Andrew in 'The Housemaid'.

On the screen

In the film, Millie tortures Andrew a bit more dramatically. She goes downstairs, gets his mother's beloved china, a pair of pliers, and a can of gas. When he refuses to pull out his teeth, she starts breaking the china. And when he still doesn't comply, she pours the gas under the door and lights a match, which finally does the trick. Millie then gleefully watches on a security camera as Andrew pulls out his own teeth.

Later, Nina, unaware that Millie has gained the upper hand, shows up at the house to help her escape. But Millie doesn't see her coming, so when Nina unlocks the attic door, she inadvertently frees Andrew, who immediately attacks her.

As the couple squares off at the top of the staircase, Millie sneaks up and pushes Andrew over the banister, causing him to fall to his death. Nina decides they'll tell the cops that he fell while changing a lightbulb, and hopes they won't notice the missing teeth.

This time, the officer sent to investigate is Andrew's ex-fiancée's sister, and she agrees to help Nina and Millie get away with it in a bit of woman-to-woman solidarity.

At the funeral, Evelyn — who always loved Andrew's beautiful smile — comments on his missing teeth, but doesn't mention anything about yanking them out herself when he was a kid.

The rest of Millie's ending is essentially unchanged in the film, including her implied new career as a vigilante for other wives in need. However, Nina is even more generous in the screen version, offering her a $100,000 check before leaving for California.

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