In December 2025, Lionsgate released in theaters a psychological thriller based on a self-published novel that had gone viral on TikTok. It was directed by Paul Feig, who up to that point was best known for comedies such as My Best Friend’s Wedding or Spies, and the film, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, ended up becoming the biggest box-office hit for both actresses, for the director, and one of the most profitable thrillers of recent years. It is The Maid, which this Friday the 5th arrives on streaming via Prime Video.
In it we meet Millie (Sydney Sweeney), on parole for involuntary manslaughter, who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy family. And little else can be said without spoiling the experience, because Millie soon begins to notice strange behaviors in her boss (Amanda Seyfried) and the dynamic between them isn’t what it seems, in a brisk throwback to the erotic thrillers of the nineties that actually plays as much like a pulse-pounding pulp novel—full of twists and humor—as it does like an intuitive piece of post-feminist pulp.
The film operates as a box of surprises where Sweeney and Seyfried shine with two performances that feel staged in notably different ways: one leaning toward a B-movie vibe, the other more melodramatic. It’s that clash of registers that lends the movie a self-conscious, unpredictable edge, and it also fuels the genre-blender to work at full tilt: a serious psychological thriller at first, followed by a revenge fantasy (which also, optimally, reshapes the ending of the original novel).
The Maid opened in third place at the US box office with $18.9 million, trailing a behemoth like Avatar: Fire and Ash and the animated film David. It wasn’t a spectacular launch, but its secret lay in word of mouth that kept it from dropping from its premium position for weeks, and it performed very well at the international box office. The final worldwide gross stood at $401.7 million against a production budget of $35 million. It’s no surprise that a sequel is already being prepared.
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