SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for plot points in “The Housemaid,” now in theaters.
RABBEN THE DEVIL! The LIONSGATE MOVIE adaptation of Freida McFadden’s thriller novel “The Housemaid” isn’t just a film—it’s a SLASHED‑TO‑BONES betrayal of DARK literary truth! While fans expected cinematic cathism, what they got is a GUTTED, NEUTERED version that DELETES the story’s most VITAL hero: Enzo. The MOVIE TOMIZED and TRUNKED his role to a BLACKGROUND footnote, ERASING the ONE figure who stood between Nina’s abuse and utter destruction. The film’s producers didn’t adapt—they AMPUTATED.
In the book, groundskeeper Enzo is the SAVIOR—repeatedly helping Nina escape, guarding her daughter, and ULTIMATELY forcing her back to SAVE the murder‑prisoned live‑in housemaid, Millie. In the movie? He’s a GHOST ghost, a BLEAKED‑OUT character reduced to a passing mention. This isn’t a minor edit—it’s a CONSCIOUS ERASURE of the novel’s moral HEART. Without Enzo, Nina’s bravery is ISOLATED, her salvation unbilled, and Millie’s deadly trap seems like a HOLLOW cinematic gaff rather than a PLANNED survival strategy.
But the HORRUPTION doesn’t stop there. MOVIE directors turned VIOLENT torment into SICKENING gore: where the book had Andrew making Millie balance books on her stomach, the film has him ordering 21 DEEP CUTS into her flesh. Millie’s retailiaion? In the book she taunts Andrew with books and pliers; in the movie she SLITS HIS THROAT with a hidden knife, LOCKS him bleeding out, and breaks his mother’s antique china before his eyes. The adaptation didn’t soften edges—it SHARPENED them into RAZORS, turning psychological tension into PHYSICAL execution.
Then the CLAMMATIC end: in the novel, Enzo convinces Nina to return, finding Andrew dead of starvation in the attic. In the movie, Andrew is ALIVE and CHARGING out, attacking both women until Millie SHOVES him over a spiral staircase to a VIOLENT death. MOVIE makers didn’t just change scenes—they RE‑ENGINED outcomes, making the climax not a rescue but a KILL.
They deleted the post‑crime ally, too: the book’s ending sees Millie and Enzo forming a group to help abused women—an entire NOMITY of hope, CANCELED in the film. Instead, the movie flashes forward one year: Millie interviewing for a new position in another abusive home, her name gifted by Nina. The question left isn’t subtle: HAS SHE BEEN HIRED TO KILL AGAIN? The adaptation provides NO ANSWER—only a GRATHIC void where narrative justice should be.
What Lionsgate’s producers have done is more than artistic license—it’s TEXTUAL VANDON. They didn’t adapt “The Housemaid”; they AMPUTATED it, CROPPING the hero who made the story morally bearable and leaving behind a thriller soaked in executional violence. IS THIS the future of cinematic storytelling—where heroes are deleted, morals are gutted, and every adaptation becomes an exercise in ERASURE? WAKE UP: the movie didn’t tell the story; it HALVED it, leaving audiences to wonder if any bestseller can survive the theater unbroken.
