The Housemaid (2025)

A crowd gathers on a congested city sidewalk when a young woman climbs onto a building ledge and leaps, her body collapsing onto the pavement below. Eun-yi, who works in a busy restaurant, stops amid her shift and persuades her coworker and roommate to drive her to the scene; she stands quietly beside the chalk outline that marks where the corpse lay. The next morning, an older live-in maid named Byeong-sik, known in the household as Miss Cho, visits Eun-yi's cramped apartment and quietly offers her a position. Eun-yi accepts and moves into a palatial home to serve as au pair for Hae-ra, who is pregnant with twins, and Hoon, the affluent husband. Eun-yi's main responsibility is caring for the couple's young daughter, Nami, and she forms a tender attachment to the child as she settles into the household routine.

Soon Hoon's attention toward Eun-yi becomes personal: he pours her wine, plays the piano to charm her, and seduces her. The two begin an affair while Eun-yi continues to act warmly toward Hae-ra, congratulating her on her pregnancy and engaging with the family in public. Miss Cho watches the growing intimacy from the margins and presses Eun-yi for details, but Eun-yi keeps the liaison private. Miss Cho shares her concerns with Hae-ra's mother, Mi-hee, who pays a visit to the house and then engineers a deliberately dangerous "accident." At the top of the staircase someone leaves a ladder positioned near the railing; Eun-yi slips, grabs a chandelier and clings to the banister, pleading for help. Mi-hee stands nearby and does not assist; Eun-yi falls, suffers a concussion, and is hospitalized overnight.

While recovering in the hospital, Eun-yi discovers she is pregnant. Mi-hee attempts to contain the scandal by advising Hae-ra to pretend nothing has happened, arguing that infidelity is common among the wealthy and that preserving their comfortable life is paramount. Hae-ra confronts Eun-yi one night with a golf club but cannot bring herself to strike her. The following day Hae-ra and Mi-hee confront Eun-yi together and attempt to buy her silence, offering a large sum--one hundred thousand dollars--if Eun-yi will terminate the pregnancy and disappear. Eun-yi refuses to accept money in exchange for ending the pregnancy. In response, Hae-ra begins to tamper with Eun-yi's daily herbal medicines, contaminating them with a toxic substance. After a period of weakness and collapse in the bathtub, Eun-yi reveals to Hoon that she is carrying his child and declares her intention to keep the baby; she then collapses from the effects of the poisoned remedies.

Mi-hee takes charge: without Eun-yi's fully informed consent, she arranges for the young woman to undergo a surgical abortion at the hospital. Back at the house, Miss Cho confesses to Eun-yi that she was the one who told Mi-hee about the pregnancy. Enraged and betrayed but determined, Eun-yi forgives Miss Cho's complicity and vows to seek retribution against the family that has wronged her. Miss Cho helps Eun-yi recover and covertly aids her in infiltrating the house again. Eun-yi returns in secret and, after the twins are born and Hae-ra goes home with her newborn sons, Hoon finds Eun-yi in the bathroom breastfeeding one of the infants. Hae-ra orders Miss Cho to expel Eun-yi, but Miss Cho refuses and quits her position on the spot.

Confrontation escalates into violence: Eun-yi marches into the family's formal gathering and confronts Hae-ra, Mi-hee, Hoon, and little Nami. In the parlor she suspends herself from the chandelier, uses the fixture to hang herself, and then sets her body on fire. The family watches in horror as Eun-yi's body becomes engulfed in flame. Time cuts to a cold, snowy outdoor scene: the family assembles for Nami's birthday celebration, speaking English to one another as if erasing the past. Hae-ra sings "Happy Birthday" while Hoon hands Nami a glass of champagne; the camera holds on Nami's stare as the film closes on the family's brittle composure.

Across the ocean and in a different household, Millie Calloway fights to rebuild her life after being released from prison following a decade behind bars for killing her college roommate's boyfriend when she interrupted him raping that roommate. Homeless and living sometimes out of her car, Millie applies for live-in work and is surprised when Nina Winchester, a Long Island wife, offers her the job in a sprawling Great Neck home. Nina shows Millie her attic room--an isolated space with a window that does not open and a door that can be locked from the outside--and warns her about the house rules. Millie meets the household members: Enzo, the soft-spoken groundskeeper; Andrew Winchester, the controlling husband; and Cecelia--"Cece," the Winchesters' daughter. Nina instructs Millie to be discreet about personal matters like parole meetings; Millie hides that obligation from her employers.

Early in Millie's employment, Nina exhibits erratic, volatile behavior. She lashes out at Millie in the kitchen, accusing her of discarding notes for a PTA speech; Andrew intervenes and apologizes for his wife's conduct. Millie later picks up Cece from ballet class only to find that Cece is at a playdate; a mother at the studio relays a neighborhood rumor that Nina once tried to drown Cece as a baby and attempted suicide thereafter, leading to a stay in a psychiatric facility. Despite those murmurs, Millie tries to form a bond with Cece but meets resistance.

Andrew's interest in Millie grows. He and Millie begin to spend time together, and on a weekend--a secret trip to see a Broadway show that Andrew cannot attend with Nina because Nina unexpectedly claims she must care for Cece--Andrew and Millie share a hotel room and then sleep together. They return home and their affair continues more openly when Nina, convinced Andrew has abandoned her, storms out of the house. Andrew and Millie live together in the marital home for a period. Millie enjoys a fragile intimacy with Andrew until one day she accidentally breaks an heirloom china set belonging to Andrew's mother, Evelyn. Andrew responds by locking Millie in her attic room; he tells her she is being punished for breaking the valuable china and imposes a brutal penance reminiscent of tactics he used on Nina.

Millie's past conviction and her strength become part of Nina's plan. In a letter Nina leaves for Cece when she initially departs the home, Nina recounts the history that led her to orchestrate her own removal. As a child Nina's parents die in a house fire; she later becomes pregnant by a college professor who abandons her. Andrew intervenes early in their relationship with control and cruelty: during one early episode, he tricks Nina into the attic, locks the door and forces her to pluck out one hundred strands of her own hair with the follicles attached; when she later produces those hairs, he had her repeat the task because he claimed one lacked a follicle. He supplies only three small bottles of water for her confinement. After she submits, he gives her a drugged bottle of water; Nina passes out and wakes to find Andrew staging a scene to make it appear she tried to drown Cece and subsequently attempted suicide. Authorities commit Nina to a psychiatric facility based on that manufactured evidence. Nina resolves later to exploit Andrew's weakness for other women: she hires Millie with the intention that Millie will attract Andrew, draw him away, and thus permit Nina to escape a marriage in which he manipulates and brutalizes her.

Back in the present, after Andrew locks Millie in the attic upon discovering the broken china, he forces her to mutilate herself: she must cut into her own abdomen twenty-one times--one cut for each shard of the china--before he will release her. Millie complies and waits for Andrew to open the door. When he returns, Millie stabs him in the neck with a concealed knife and secures the door, trapping him inside the attic. She returns to the main house, shatters the remainder of the china in angry retribution, and then re-enters the room. Using a pair of pliers she provides, she coerces Andrew into removing one of his front teeth as reciprocal punishment; he complies unwillingly, and Millie leaves him wounded and locked.

Nina, having planned her exit, is persuaded by Cece to bring Millie with them when they leave. Concerned for Millie's safety, Nina returns to the house to free her because Cece urges they take Millie along. Nina goes to the attic and finds the door unlocked, believing Millie still trapped inside; Andrew seizes the opportunity and attacks. In the subsequent physical struggle Andrew chases after Millie and confronts Nina. Millie reappears, and in the confrontation on the spiral staircase she pushes Andrew over the railing. Andrew falls down the spiral stairwell, his head and neck striking the steps and the floor below; the impact kills him. Nina improvises a cover story to make the fall look accidental: she unscrews a lightbulb above the stairwell and claims Andrew died while replacing it. Police arrive; Jessica Connors, a detective who is also the sister of Andrew's first fiancée, interviews Nina and notes the stab wound in Andrew's neck but, because of her family ties and knowledge of Andrew's prior abusive behavior toward her sister, she elects not to pursue the matter further and effectively shields Nina.

Following the police clearance, Nina attends Andrew's funeral alongside Cece and Evelyn while maintaining a public appearance of ignorance about the true circumstances of his death. Nina later meets Millie and hands her a check for one hundred thousand dollars to help her restart her life. Millie moves on: she attends a job interview with another wealthy woman who says Nina recommended Millie for the live-in position. During that interview the prospective employer nervously plays with a knife set and reveals a bruise on her wrist, implying an abusive relationship; Millie, having learned how to survive and how to strike back, simply asks when she can begin the job.

Both households close on fractured futures. In the Korean household, Eun-yi's final act of self-harm by hanging and immolation leaves the family traumatized and displays visible cracks in the façade of their comfortable life; in the Long Island home, Andrew's violent end and the official forbearance of the investigating officer permit Nina and Cece to leave under a veneer of innocence while Millie departs with money and a new path. In the closing frames of the Korean story, the family gathers in a snowy yard for Nami's birthday, speaking English and attempting a composed celebration as Hae-ra sings and Hoon offers champagne to the child, while the camera holds on Nami's impassive gaze. In the closing moments of the Winchester narrative, Millie, poised to begin another household job at Nina's recommendation, sits across from a new employer who exhibits a fresh sign of domestic injury, and Millie asks when she is expected to start.

The ending of The Housemaid (2025) reveals that Andrew Winchester dies locked in the attic, with Nina and Millie involved in the aftermath. Nina calls the police but is initially suspected of murder until a police officer, whose daughter was once engaged to Andrew, ensures Nina is not charged. Millie, who has a troubled past, is seen moving on by interviewing for a new housemaid job, indicating a cycle of similar struggles continuing. Andrew's mother confronts Nina but ultimately supports her. Nina decides to move to California, leaving behind the traumatic events.

In the final sequence of The Housemaid, the story unfolds with Enzo, the groundskeeper, urging Nina to check on Millie, who has been isolated in the house for days. When Nina arrives, she discovers Andrew dead in the attic, locked inside. Millie follows and realizes the gravity of the situation, fearing she might be implicated and sent back to prison. Nina instructs Millie to leave and never admit she was there. Nina then contacts the police.

At the police station, Nina faces suspicion for Andrew's death. However, a police officer intervenes, revealing a personal connection: his daughter was once engaged to Andrew but changed her name and disappeared from the dating scene. This connection leads the officer to believe Andrew's death was accidental, possibly self-inflicted by locking himself in the attic unknowingly, and he ensures Nina will not be charged.

Following these events, Nina plans to relocate to California to start anew. She invites Enzo to join her, but he declines, burdened by the painful memories tied to the house. At Andrew's funeral, his mother, Evelyn Winchester, confronts Nina about inconsistencies in the police report, including a missing tooth. Evelyn explains she had pulled one of Andrew's teeth as a child to teach him dental hygiene and expresses a strange approval that Nina continued this lesson.

The film closes with an epilogue showing Millie interviewing for a new housemaid position with a woman named Lisa. Millie notices a bruise on Lisa, who reveals she was recommended by Nina Winchester and asks for help. Millie agrees, suggesting a continuation of the cycle of troubled women seeking refuge in similar roles.

Fates of main characters at the end:

• Andrew Winchester: Found dead, locked in the attic, cause implied accidental or self-inflicted confinement.
• Nina Winchester: Cleared of murder charges, plans to move to California to escape the trauma.
• Millie Calloway: Free but still entangled in a cycle of hardship, seeking new employment as a housemaid.
• Enzo: Declines to move with Nina, remaining behind, weighed down by memories.
• Evelyn Winchester: Supports Nina despite suspicious circumstances, revealing a complex family dynamic.

This ending scene-by-scene narrative captures the resolution of the mystery around Andrew's death, the shifting alliances and survival strategies of the women involved, and the ongoing theme of entrapment and escape within the household.

Yes. In the 2025 film "The Housemaid," only one major on‑screen death occurs, and it is Andrew Winchester's.

Andrew Winchester
- Why he dies: Andrew is revealed as a sadistic abuser who has terrorized Nina for years and begun subjecting Millie to the same torturous "punishments" in the locked attic room. Nina and Millie both know that if he lives, he will keep controlling, brutalizing, or eventually kill them and continue to endanger Cece; killing him becomes the only way out of his cycle of abuse and manipulation.
- When it happens: His death comes in the final act, after Millie has escaped from the attic and Andrew, desperate to reassert control, tries to pull Nina back into their old life. Nina refuses, which triggers his violence.
- How it happens (circumstances and method):
• Earlier, Andrew locks Millie in the attic, orders her to slice deep gashes into her own abdomen with shards of his grandmother's broken china--twenty‑one cuts for twenty‑one pieces--and tells her she must obey to "earn" release. Millie, bleeding and shaking, forces herself to complete the cuts. When he finally opens the door, she lunges and drives a cheese knife, which Nina had secretly hidden for her, into his neck. He staggers, gushing blood, and she manages to slam the door and lock him inside, trapping him in the room that has been his torture chamber for years. From the outside, she deliberately smashes more of the heirloom china, knowing how obsessively he clings to it, and threatens to burn him alive. Cornered and terrified of dying, Andrew agrees to her demand and uses pliers to rip out one of his own front teeth, whimpering and sobbing in pain. Millie leaves him alive but humiliated, then escapes to Nina.
• After this, Nina decides she will not return to being his captive wife. When Andrew realizes she will not resume their marriage or let him keep his power over her, he turns physically violent and tries to kill her inside the house. They struggle near the upper level's spiral staircase; Nina is backing away, breathless and panicked, with Andrew looming over her, grabbing and shoving her toward the drop.
• Millie, having come back at the crucial moment, rushes in. Seeing Andrew about to overpower Nina and likely throw her over, Millie drives her whole body weight into him from the side, shoving him off balance. He topples over the inner railing of the spiral staircase and plummets down the open shaft. He lands hard at the bottom, his body broken and lifeless--the fall kills him instantly.
- Aftermath and staging: Nina, heart pounding but now eerily focused, moves into cover‑up mode. To make Andrew's death look like an accident rather than self‑defense and intervention, she unscrews a nearby light bulb and lets it drop so it shatters beside his corpse, suggesting he fell while trying to fix the chandelier. She then calls Enzo, the landscaper, who helps her quietly stage the scene before the authorities arrive. When the police come, Nina presents the story of an unfortunate household accident; a female officer, who has her own history with Andrew's abuse, implicitly accepts this version. Andrew is buried, his death officially recorded as an accident, leaving Nina, Millie, and Cece finally free of him.

The movie The Housemaid (2025) does not have a post-credits scene. There is no indication from available information or official sources that any extra scene appears after the credits roll, so viewers can leave the theater once the movie ends without missing additional content. This aligns with the common practice for many standalone psychological thrillers that do not set up sequels or extended universes.

Millie is a struggling woman seeking a fresh start, which motivates her to accept the position as a housemaid for the affluent couple Nina and Andrew Winchester.

The movie explores the complex and nuanced relationship between Millie and Nina, with both characters portrayed as mysterious and not revealing everything about themselves immediately, leading to tension and intrigue.

Andrew Winchester, Nina's husband, is a central figure in the household dynamics, influencing the interactions and tensions between the characters, especially involving Millie and Nina.

Enzo is the groundskeeper for the Winchester estate, and his character adds another layer to the story's tension and complexity, interacting with the main characters in pivotal ways.

Yes, the story is described as 'unbelievably twisty,' suggesting that Millie's past and her true intentions in the Winchester household unfold with surprising twists that keep the audience engaged.

The 2025 film The Housemaid is a psychological thriller with mature themes, and it is not family-friendly for children or sensitive viewers. It contains potentially upsetting elements such as intense psychological tension, scenes involving secrets, scandal, and power struggles within a wealthy household, and some disturbing or unsettling moments. The tone is described as unsettling, sexy, and intoxicating, indicating adult content and complex emotional situations.

Potentially objectionable or upsetting aspects include:

• Psychological thriller elements with suspense and tension.
• Themes of manipulation, secrets, and scandal within a family setting.
• Some scenes may involve emotional distress or conflict.
• Mature content implied by the description of a "sexy, seductive game" and adult relationships.
• Possible depiction of household mistreatment or power imbalances.

No explicit plot spoilers are revealed here, but the film's content is clearly aimed at mature audiences and may not be suitable for children or those sensitive to psychological or adult themes.