Review: The Housemaid

Imagine being stuck in a hellish household as a maid where your boss is mercurial, prone to changing her mind about you entirely on a whim and seemingly having no recollection of her previous requests or comments towards you. This is the problem faced by Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney), a young new housemaid hired by the wealthy Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried). The overall plot is somewhat predictable, with twists you can see coming clearly before they happen, but the film is still entertaining despite this, as the two central performances have some surprising depth to them: Amanda Seyfried steals the show here as her character, giving an initially wonderfully-unhinged performance that gradually reveals a deeper undercurrent of sadness. On the other hand, Sydney Sweeney plays Millie as the very put upon maid of the family for the first half of the film, but shows a more resourceful side to her in the back half as more revelations about the Winchesters come to light. Overall, an entertaining film with an absolutely scene-stealing performance from Amanda Seyfried giving her all despite the predictable plot. 7/10!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reviewing "Hereditary": An excellent "slow-burn" horror film focused on grief and family

Hereditary  is a horror film directed by Ari Aster, starring Toni Collette as Annie Graham, Gabriel Byrne as her husband Steve Graham, Alex Wolff as son Peter, and Milly Shapiro as daughter Charlie. It centers on a family that suffers from a horrible tragedy and begins to fall apart, all the while sinister secrets are dug up. Much like The Witch , the film is more of a slow-burn horror in terms of pacing. Unlike The Witch , the film is set in the modern day. Firstly, the acting. Toni Collette's acting as Annie, mother of two and whose own mother had recently died, is beyond excellent, with certain scenes in particular allowing her to show a wide range of emotions and deliver a genuine performance, at times unsettling, at times heart-wrenching, but 100% real and believable. Gabriel Byrne, as well-meaning father Steve, serves as the most grounded center for the film, the middleman in the familial conflict between Annie and Peter. Alex Wolff's Peter is a 16-year-old with a lot of ...
Read more

Reviewing "Hunter Hunter": A disturbing thriller offering non-stop excitement and a gruesome finale

Hunter Hunter  is a horror/thriller directed by Shawn Linden and starring Camille Sullivan as Anne and Devon Sawa as Joe. It centers on a couple living in the wilderness with their daughter, making a living catching and skinning animals to sell their pelts. However, their lives come under threat from a hungry wolf in the nearby forest as well as something more dangerous. The film is extremely tense, but there are quite a few sequences of visceral violence, so it is definitely not for the faint of heart. I must say that I have quite a good tolerance for gore and this film was not an easy watch for me. However, the conclusion is rewarding and satisfying in a very morbid way even though the twists in the film may come off as predictable, since the endless tension and the engrossing performances help keep the audience on the edge of their seats. The cinematography is also very good, being full of sweeping shots of beautiful forests which serve as a nice contrast to the disturbing devel...
Read more