‘The Housemaid’ heads to Blu-ray with twists and secrets within a troubled mansion

Director Paul Feig scored a blockbuster hit with a psychological thriller from late last year that moves to Blu-ray home theater realms in The Housemaid (Lionsgate Home Entertainment, rated R, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, 131 minutes, $39.99).

Fueled in part by the current celebrity heat of actress Sydney Sweeney, the story adapted from Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel finds a recently paroled Millie Calloway (Ms. Sweeney) in desperate need of work, taking a job as a live-in maid.

Working for the wealthy Winchesters — Nina (Amanda Seyfried), her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and daughter Cece (Indiana Elle) — Millie lives in the attic of the mansion and does basic housework, errands and chores.

Millie pretty quickly gets the vibe that something is terribly wrong with the family, noticing the attic bedroom’s exterior is locked and watching Nina fly into a fit of rage as she accuses the maid of throwing away notes for a speech.

Nina also gets very jealous of Andrew occasionally helping Millie and asks her to leave.

Millie’s parole requires that she keep her job or go back to jail, and she begs for one more chance, even after finding out that Nina, according to her socialite friends, has severe psychological issues.

Mysteries and dark secrets tied to the family begin to surface, compounded by a dangerous liaison that delivers enough twists and turns to give an avid roller-coaster rider a stomachache.

The thrills are solid, but a nagging plot device — relying on the female characters’ voice-over narration to explain their predicaments, especially in the crucial second half — lets some of the steam out.

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Ms. Sweeney’s somewhat comatose performance, particularly when contrasted with Ms. Seyfried’s more frenetic scenes, also detracts, though viewers will still appreciate the terrors of “The Housemaid.”

Best extras: Viewers get a surprising number of digital goodies to further appreciate the filmmaking of “The Housemaid,” starting with a pair of optional commentary tracks.

First, the gregarious and slightly manic director offers his solo thoughts on the film, recorded before it was released, and reminds viewers to first watch the movie before his commentary.

Mr. Feig touches on filming in the snow; casting the house and its importance as a character; shooting in New Jersey for the tax breaks; explaining filmmaking lingo such as “fly the walls” and “general meetings”; Blake Lively pushing Mr. Sklenar for the role; and being dead set on Millie listening to Linda Ronstadt songs. 

More wide-sweeping topics that are tackled include working with the cast; comparing the script to the book; designing the attic; building scenes with Nina slowly degrading through the movie; not rehearsing actors; the importance of numerous audience test screenings early in the edits; selecting what scenes to delete, cutting together a love scene; and his philosophy on end credits.

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Mr. Feig’s enthusiasm for the finished product is obvious throughout the nonstop commentary.

Next, in a massive group commentary, the director asks questions of producers Laura Fischer, Carly Elter and Todd Lieberman; cinematographer John Schwartzman; composer Theodore Shapiro; editor Brent White; casting director Allison Jones; and on Zoom, screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine, production designer Elizabeth Jones and costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus.

The group is very happy to unload on information about the film for each of their specialties from producers pursuing Ms. Sonnenshine to write the script; Ms. Jones talking about finding the perfect house; Ms. Jones being able to secure Ms. Seyfried when casting the role; and Ms. Kalfus on getting costumes to fit Ms. Sweeney who was still in the process of losing weight from her previous role.

Extras also feature a 35-minute overview of the movie that starts with the author, Ms. McFadden, discussing her inspiration from previous horrible bosses in the past and then how the screenwriter, Ms. Sonnenshine, adapted the material.

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Key cast and crew then cover creating the characters, including plenty of time with Mr. Feig (the best-dressed director in Hollywood as chronicled here) who discusses the actors, character motivations, the story twists, costuming, the main house location, set decoration, building the dollhouse and the soundstage attic.

Additionally, viewers get an 11-minute walk-through of the Winchester house, courtesy of set decorator Paige Mitchell with production designer, Ms. Jones, focused on the attic and eight minutes of deleted scenes.

Use the included digital code to access the film on the Fandango streaming service and find an exclusive, five-minute featurette on creating the mostly practical stunts.

• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.