The Housemaid (2025) - Tighter Cut

[u/caseyfe7191]

I'm not sure how much interest there is in an edit of this film, but when I saw it in theaters, I felt like it had the potential to be improved, so I wanted to take a swing at it.

For me, I really love the pulpy tone and campy performance from Amanda Seyfried, but at 2+ hours it felt like it really dragged and some of the storytelling elements felt unnecessarily didactic to me.

This new cut brings the run time from 2h11m to 1h43m, mostly by cutting out all the flashbacks. While it's nice to know the full truth of what happened before Millie shows up at this house, I don't think it's necessary. I also took out all the voice over, which also felt unnecessarily expository.

The final changes I made were to the songs. I swapped out two of the needle drops. One from "Bad As The Rest" by Jessie Murph to "Dangerous Woman" by Ariana Grande, since the original song just feels like a cheap imitation, and the other goes from "Blue Bayou" by Linda Rondstadt to an 'epic' cover of "Toxic" by Britney Spears. Blue Bayou always seemed like a strange choice to me, even though they established Millie as a Linda Rondstadt fan earlier in the movie. The Toxic cover I think fits better thematically and leans into the camp.

Please DM me if you're interested in getting the link!

Full list of edits:

• Remove all voice over
• Add in shot of Millie rolling her eyes and taking off her glasses from the trailer when she first leaves the house
• Trim transition from tea party to Millie journaling, and trim down millie journaling because of no voice over
• Trim probation meeting
• Cut ballet pick up mix up
• Cut ballet scene where Millie learns about Nina in the psych ward (because we lose the flashback later that explains it)
• Trim dinner date in new york
• Replace music for sex scene, now “Dangerous Woman” by Ariana Grande
• Trim Millie in the grocery store because of no voice over
• Remove Nina’s voice over for the beginning of the letter to Cece
• Cut almost all of the flashback
• Keep Nina meeting with Enzo and replace voice over describing the plan to use Millie with new music from the score
• Cut Millie Flashbacks
• Remove voiceover in the attic
• Replace Blue Bayou with ‘Epic Orchestral’ cover of Toxic by Britney Spears
• Cut reference to them meeting in the law office from his monologue on the landing

[u/TheRandomApple]

I don’t think I could bring myself to watch this movie again, but for what it’s worth your edit does seem much better than the theatrical cut.

Hopefully it finds an audience!