The Housemaid’s director justifies the huge changes he made to the book’s gory ending

Yes, the new Sydney Sweeney film The Housemaid is based on a novel. Although the movie is slaying at the box office, some book readers were unimpressed at how the film differed from the book. The director of The Housemaid film, Paul Feig, has explained which bits of the book he changed, and justified why.

Paul Feig explained to Rolling Stone how he decided which bits of The Housemaid book to keep, and which bits to change. “Adaptations are tough, because if you take a lot of liberties with the novel or take out their favourite parts out, people get mad. And if you just do a rote adaptation, people don’t give you credit for that, either. ‘Don’t just film the book! But also, make it just like the book!’ There were some of what I’d call water-cooler moments that were left out [of the original script] to make things run a little quicker, and which I thought might be good to find a way to include.”

He tried to add “some really dark fun” to the film, especially during Millie’s fights with Andrew.

Feig told People: “The things we changed were things that we wanted to be a little more cinematic than there was.”

Lots of book readers were annoyed that the film didn’t include a dispute over peanut butter. This moment in the book probably wasn’t deemed as “cinematic” as other parts of the story.

The attic was a lot more Instagramable in the film
(Credit: Lionsgate)

This also explains why the film featured a chandelier with human hair, even though this wasn’t in the book. It’s a pretty dramatic thing to see on screen.

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The biggest difference between the book and the film is the ending. In the novel, Andrew shuts Millie in the attic and piles books on top of her. She then locks Andrew up in the attic. She forces him to pull out his teeth, then leaves him to die of thirst. The ending of the film includes a lot more action. Andrew traps Millie in the attic as punishment for breaking china. He forces her to cut herself with it. Nina and Andrew end up fight in the stairway. Millie pushes him down the steps, and he dies. Nina helps make his death appear like an accident.

Paul Feig explained his thought process behind this. He told The Direct: “We expanded the ending because the book ends very satisfyingly for a book, but not satisfyingly enough for a movie. You still needed the monster in the house… What Millie is sort of made to do up in the attic worked in the book, but it wasn’t harsh enough for the movie screen in order to get the audience blood thirsty enough.”

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