Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel The Housemaid is a slow-burn exercise in psychological dread. The newly released film adaptation from Paul Fieg is louder, and far more interested in shock and catharsis. Both follow Millie, a desperate woman who takes a live-in housekeeping job for a wealthy family with deeply warped dynamics, but what unfolds from there depends on the medium: one story punishes patiently, the other explodes.
The book is unsettling, the movie is thrilling. Major spoilers ahead.
Millie’s whole vibe
On the page, Millie’s transformation is incremental–her awareness sharpens slowly and her anger simmers. On screen, Millie is more of an action-ready protagonist. Played by Sydney Sweeney, she is more reactive, more openly furious, and ultimately more forceful. The film gives her a cathartic release that the book pointedly withholds. It’s a shift that trades moral unease for audience satisfaction.
Sexy Enzo, trimmed for time
In the book, Enzo is a legitimate character. On the screen, he’s a pretty face. The book gives readers backstory into the romantic relationship between Enzo and Nina; the multiple times he tried to help her escape, and ultimately how he and Nina together devised the plan to replace her with a younger, bouncier cool girl. Also in the book, Millie tries to hook up with Enzo, but he holds out for his lady. After her escape, Nina spends the night with Enzo, who pushes her to return to save Millie from Andrew. In the movie, it’s Nina’s young daughter Cece who encourages her to return to the house for Millie.
Millie’s punishment
While trapped in the attic on the page, Andrew forces Millie to balance three heavy books on her stomach for hours, watching her through a camera he’s installed. When she doesn’t complete the task to his liking, he makes her start again. The movie opts for a bloodier, more violent punishment–21 deep cuts on her abdomen.
Andrew’s fate
In Freida McFadden’s novel, Andrew’s death is slower, crueler. He’s left in the attic for days and dies of starvation, with no dramatic showdown, no last-minute escape, no lightbulb nonsense. His on-the-page punishment is much more patient, which speaks to the book’s themes of psychological retribution. The film adaptation opts for a big-screen showdown, a fast and definitive physical confrontation between Nina, Millie, and Andrew, who is pushed from the spiral staircase to his death.
Andrew’s mother
More of a spooky presence on the screen, the book uses Andrew’s mother Evelyn as a twisted thread, tying together the loose ends of this story. She abused Andrew as a child, making him the monster he is today. In the book, the whole “smiles are a privilege” thing comes from the fact that Evelyn used to pull out Andrew’s baby teeth as a punishment for lazy oral hygiene.
