View:
Connections, in both directions
Gone Girl (2014)
Directed by David Fincher
influenced The Housemaid (2025), A Simple Favor (2018)
Themes
The critic consensus frames The Housemaid as a “sly throwback” to older lurid thrillers, with Feig trying his hand at a twist-heavy story that feels like it wants to chase the Gone Girl mood.
This is but the latest chicklit trend to light up cinemas after the 2000s deluge of Nicholas Sparks adaptations and crime thriller era which peaked with Gone Girl and eventually led to the Netflix parody miniseries The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.
“The Housemaid” finds itself at an interesting crossroads between the self-aware suburban mysteries of the post-”Gone Girl” era and the sort of heightened psychological thriller common in the ‘90s. However, the sort of knotiness within “Gone Girl” isn’t possible for “The Housemaid” when each of its maneuvers is so clearly orchestrated.
A pulpy erotic thriller that channels the airport-read energy of Gone Girl…
Perdida (Gone Girl) (2014)…
The Housemaid either needs to veer into outright parody or nestle into the dark, psychotic space where David Fincher took Gone Girl.
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Directed by Adrian Lyne
influenced The Housemaid (2025), A Simple Favor (2018)
Themes
Much to my surprise, The Housemaid is mostly, dare I say, a “hoot,” and it’s nice to see Feig trying to bring back erotic thrillers like Fatal Attraction or The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (especially after how disappointing this year’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle remake was).
There are echoes of Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Single White Female, and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle in its glossy surfaces, sexual tension, and escalating paranoia.
El largometraje de Feig se inspira o busca asemejarse a los thrillers de fines de los ’80 y principios de los ’90 del estilo de «Atracción Fatal» (1987), «9 semanas y media» (1986) y «Bajos Instintos» (1992), donde se explotaba el capital erótico de sus estrellas y al mismo tiempo se intentaba contar una historia intrincada llena de giros sorprendentes y duelos de grandes proporciones entre los protagonistas.
…the film tries to take aim at systemic misogyny using the familiar framework of tales like Fatal Attraction which have ingrained psycho ex-girlfriends into popular culture…
A “Basic Instinct” here, a “Fatal Attraction” there.
…follows a proud lineage of psychological thrillers with an erotic edge like 1987’s Fatal Attraction and 1992’s Basic Instinct…
Single White Female (1992)
Directed by Barbet Schroeder
influenced The Housemaid (2025), A Simple Favor (2018)
Themes
A film that tries to evoke the themes and exaggerated fun of classics like Basic Instinct or Single White Female, but doesn’t achieve the necessary bite or reticent performances to succeed.
There are echoes of Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Single White Female, and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle in its glossy surfaces, sexual tension, and escalating paranoia.
…turns Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney into modern-day Davis and Crawford, like something out of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? mashed up with a ’90s-style female thriller like Single White Female, or Hand That Rocks the Cradle, but teetering on the edge of cinematic insanity.
For a vibe reading, think: Single White Female; The Hand That Rocks the Cradle; The Crush; Sleeping With the Enemy; Poison Ivy; Body Heat; Fatal Attraction; and so on.
You know the ones, flicks like Basic Instinct (1992), Single White Female (1992), Poison Ivy (1992) and Sliver (1993).
SINGLE WHITE FEMALE…
Basic Instinct (1992)
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
influenced The Housemaid (2025), A Simple Favor (2018)
Themes
A film that tries to evoke the themes and exaggerated fun of classics like Basic Instinct or Single White Female, but doesn’t achieve the necessary bite or reticent performances to succeed.
There are echoes of Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Single White Female, and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle in its glossy surfaces, sexual tension, and escalating paranoia.
El largometraje de Feig se inspira o busca asemejarse a los thrillers de fines de los ’80 y principios de los ’90 del estilo de «Atracción Fatal» (1987), «9 semanas y media» (1986) y «Bajos Instintos» (1992), donde se explotaba el capital erótico de sus estrellas y al mismo tiempo se intentaba contar una historia intrincada llena de giros sorprendentes y duelos de grandes proporciones entre los protagonistas.
A diferencia de clásicos como Instinto básico o La mano que mece la cuna, aquí hay una prudencia contemporánea —quizá hija de lecturas feministas inevitables— que atenúa la negrura, la incorrección y la osadía que definían a aquel cine orgullosamente cursi y excesivo.
A “Basic Instinct” here, a “Fatal Attraction” there.
We are back in the sleazy, glossy world of Curtis Hanson’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle or Joe Eszterhas’s Basic Instinct, but skating quite close, though not too close, to satire.
Double Indemnity (1944)
Directed by Billy Wilder
influenced A Simple Favor (2018)
Themes Characters Plot
Adapted by Jessica Sharzer (Nerve) from Darcey Bell’s 2017 novel, A Simple Favor pulls from a plethora of sources — Gone Girl, Rebecca, Gaslight, Double Indemnity, Diabolique — some of which the screenplay literally name-checks; it’s less homage or even pastiche than a bargain-basement mash-up of various superior inspirations.
Like Fred MacMurray’s weak-kneed patsy in “ Double Indemnity ,” Emily is thunderstruck by one of those noir blondes who could easily prove fatal.
If Double Indemnity were a hangout movie, this would be its sequel.
“A Simple Favor” is a sort of collage, featuring thematic snippets from “L’Avventura,” “Vertigo,” and “Double Indemnity,” set in the updated turf of Douglas Sirk, in an archetypal suburb that’s decorated in the catchy bright colors of the Hollywood sixties.
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Directed by Richard Donner
influenced The Heat (2013)
Characters Themes Visuals Plot
Not long afterwards came Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines in “Running Scared” (1986) and an inspired pairing of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover for the first “Lethal Weapon” film (1987) that really reinforced the loose cannon-conservative lawman match-up.
In the vein of ’80s action classics like 48 Hrs. and Lethal Weapon, The Heat is a modern rendition on the buddy cop film.
Paying homage to its genre roots, The Heat opens with a bouncy '70s-cop-show credit sequence, and follows it by twice mastering the vanishing art of the efficient character introduction; in just a few short minutes, it proves itself as deft as even the likes of Lethal Weapon at nailing down exactly who these two wildly different characters are.
In "The Heat" we're closer to full-on action mode, akin to "48 Hrs." or "Lethal Weapon" territory than a spoofy affair on the order of the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg movie "The Other Guys."
The characters deal with things Lethal Weapon's Murtaugh and Riggs never would have had to worry about.
They're set loose on a flimsy, Lethal Weapon-y drug case, an excuse for the ol' odd-couple tropes to play out: the uncool Ashburn needs to learn not to be so uptight, while the hard Mullins needs to learn to let down her emotional guard.
Not long afterwards came Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines in “Running Scared” (1986) and an inspired pairing of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover for the first “Lethal Weapon” film (1987) that really reinforced the loose cannon-conservative lawman match-up.
Dippold was initially inspired by the buddy-cop comedy Running Scared, which includes a montage of hot babes riding on the back of Billy Crystal's and Gregory Hines' scooters.
When he was in town last month, director Paul Feig confessed that the movie’s inspiration came to Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold while watching the 1986 cable staple Running Scared, which starred Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines as a couple of mismatched Chicago detectives stumbling onto a totally unremarkable mystery and bantering their way through a brisk two hours.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Directed by Frank Capra
influenced Last Christmas (2019)
Themes Characters Plot
I will also admit that, even though the final twist didn’t bother me or strike me as cloying or facile, it’s still pretty hard to accept, Last Christmas entering into that melodramatic Frank Capra-esque realm of emotionally-saccharine magical realism few filmmakers other than the It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington master have been able to pull off with any consistency.
The Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and even Netflix have proven that for every The Bishop’s Wife or It’s a Wonderful Life , there’s also a place for improbable romantic cheese involving holiday spirit and a strategically placed sprig of mistletoe.
You can easily picture Emilia Clarke taking on any role in a holiday classic and make it believable (Mary Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Ellen in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation).
On the contrary, knowing that Tom is basically It’s A Wonderful Life -ing Kate makes the movie that much sweeter while you watch it.
British producer David Livingstone ( Judy ) was pondering on Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life when he came up with the idea.
It’s A Wonderful Life has gone down as a classic since its release and Christmas Vacation is a non-stop laugh riot.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Directed by Jay Roach
influenced Spy (2015)
Visuals Themes
The truly inspired scenes are far outnumbered by the familiar ones recycled from earlier spy spoofs like Austin Powers and Top Secret!
"Austin Powers" has an entire trilogy devoted to the concept while the stylish opening of "Spy" is a throwback to the opening James Bond film title sequences, which films like "Spy Hard" and even "Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" already utilized 5-10 years ago.
Spy stops just short of being an all-out spoof ala Austin Powers , but Feig's affection for all things James Bond is clear to see as he fits the film into the framework of a classic Sean Connery-era 007 outing (complete with Shirley Bassey-esque theme song).
With Spy, Feig, McCarthy and a strong ensemble cast have staked out the territory for what could be the kickoff to a major franchise to rival Mike Myers’ Austin Powers comedies or Peter Sellers’ The Pink Panther series, if the movie world needs any more franchises.
Where Austin Powers poked fun at the James Bond movies’ familiar tropes and old-fashioned misogyny by imitating them to exaggerated levels, Spy ’s female focus allows for a different and more knowing kind of parody, while also giving McCarthy her most nuanced role to date.
Spy is the funniest thing to happen to the espionage genre since Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.
“Are you trying to Diabolique me?” Stephanie asks Sean at one point, a reference to the classic 1955 French film about a wife, a mistress and a murder—and a perfect alibi.
When A Simple Favor actually pushes for an film reference, cineastes at the screening I attended applauded Stephanie’s making emphatic references to Henri-Georges Clouzot’s psychological conspiracy thriller Diabolique (or maybe she’s thinking of the inferior 1996 remake with Sharon Stone?), when accusatory fingers start pointing in her direction.
There is another savvy moment, wonderfully played by Kendrick, where an increasingly paranoid Stephanie senses similarities with Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic 1955 thriller "Diabolique" and questions if she might be the victim of gaslighting.Lively is every bit Kendrick's match as Emily, a woman who can be warm one second and prickly the next, the scope of her complicated character coming gradually to light once her haunting memory is all which remains.
Too much of the new Ghostbusters is concerned with paying homage to the first movie, from the use of Ray Parker Jr.’s theme song to the incorporation of the Ghostbusters logo into the plot (the logo comes to life as an evil spirit).
“Ghostbusters” gets off to a good start, seemingly going its own way and not copying the 1984 movie.
You can draw plenty of parallels between this new Ghostbusters and the 1984 original.
After months of negative online buzz, director Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters remake emerges as a consistently funny pleasure, never quite as sharp or inspired as the 1984 original, but radiating such good cheer that comparisons between the two films don’t much matter.
No “Ghostbusters” is an island, and stacked against the charming 1984 original, the 2016 effort becomes a pale, unnecessary echo.
“Ghostbusters” is back, with its impossibly jaunty theme song bouncing away in my head again like it’s 1984.
In “The Heat,” Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy put a feminine spin on the buddy copy film, a male-dominated sub-genre made popular by movies like “48 Hours” and “Bad Boys.”
Bullock and/or McCarthy are in every scene, driving the film in the way that Nick Nolte & Eddie Murphy drove “48 Hours” or Charles Grodin & Robert DeNiro drove “Midnight Run.”
They’re as tough as any male pairing of the genre — Gibson and Glover in “Lethal Weapon,” Murphy and Nolte in “48 Hours” — but they bring a strong “girlfriends” feeling to the table.
“48 Hours” blended the kind of rapid-fire jokes, serious shootouts, and blatant disregard for “by the book” police work that’s since become a trademark of such movies.
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
Directed by Joseph Ruben
influenced The Housemaid (2025)
Themes Characters
Sleeping with the Enemy with Julia Roberts…
Along the lines of classic female-centric 90s thrillers like SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY…
For a vibe reading, think: Single White Female; The Hand That Rocks the Cradle; The Crush; Sleeping With the Enemy; Poison Ivy; Body Heat; Fatal Attraction; and so on.
It gets steamy and then, quicker than you can say “Sleeping with the Enemy,” the only thing mounting is the tension.
As for Sklenar, he just might remind you of Patrick Bergin, if you’ve ever seen that actor’s 1991 movie with Julia Roberts.
Gaslight (1944)
Directed by George Cukor
influenced The Housemaid (2025), A Simple Favor (2018)
Themes Plot
…y Luz que agoniza (Gaslight, 1944), en los que la cordura parece derrumbarse entre las paredes de una mansión.
“The Housemaid” is like “Gaslight” meets “Jane Eyre,” with a dash of “Rebecca,” and all the various roles are lightly scrambled, infused with a much sexier, nastier streak than any of those mannered mindbenders.
…gleefully gaslighting the title character…
Seyfried juega con esa ambigüedad de forma casi lúdica, evocando cierto cine de suspense clásico donde el exceso emocional era parte del atractivo y no un defecto a corregir.
…mixing plot and character elements from woman-in-peril domestic thrillers like “Gaslight“ and “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle“ with elements of erotic thrillers…
Lovers of classic cinema will notice a certain debt to the plot of Gaslight from 1944 but it's acknowledged when one of the characters uses the term ''gaslighting''.
Someone Great is best pitched as Bridesmaids meets 500 Days of Summer — it’s a female led comedy with heartbreak, self-worth and self-realization at its core.
That’s the difference between a stellar Bridesmaids and Girls Trip and meh copycats like Rough Night and Ibiza .
Someone Great borrows from the post- Bridesmaids canon of excellent, raunchy comedies driven by friendship between women.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: As adorable as Stanfield and Rodriguez are together, the real emotional core of the film is the friendship between Jenny, Blair and Erin, who are hilarious—so the titles that come to mind are Bridesmaids and Broad City .
If you’ll allow me to finally play the gender card, this is a disservice to female audiences who have been craving this kind of finely-crafted, debaucherous touchstone since “Bridesmaids” ignited this fire eight years ago.
For a vibe reading, think: Single White Female; The Hand That Rocks the Cradle; The Crush; Sleeping With the Enemy; Poison Ivy; Body Heat; Fatal Attraction; and so on.
You know the ones, flicks like Basic Instinct (1992), Single White Female (1992), Poison Ivy (1992) and Sliver (1993).
“The Housemaid” marks a devilish return to the decade of erotic psychological thrillers, including “Single White Female,” “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” and “Poison Ivy.”
…while movies like Mortal Thoughts and Poison Ivy occupied the more lurid middle ground…
Vertigo (1958)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
influenced A Simple Favor (2018), The Housemaid (2025)
Themes Dialogue
It’d be too generous to frame The Housemaid as actively Hitchcockian, but it does feel as if it’s been made by someone who at least has Rebecca (1940) and Vertigo (1958) rattling around in the back of their head.
…recalling the most notorious confession in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (a sequence the esteemed director himself famously attempted to excise)…
In the case of A Simple Favor, what the audience should know is that, even though the screenplay by Jessica Sharzer, adapted from Darcey Bell’s novel, borrows some narrative cues from gloomier fare like Strangers on a Train and Vertigo, it’s a lighthearted mystery with a heaping helping of humor, more in tune with happy-go-lucky classics like North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief.
Director Feig even includes sly references to Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Ingmar Bergman’s Persona.
Though the plot tries to cozy up to a Hitchcockian tradition of vanishing women and amateur gumshoes, A Simple Favor is, by design, no Vertigo.
“A Simple Favor” is a sort of collage, featuring thematic snippets from “L’Avventura,” “Vertigo,” and “Double Indemnity,” set in the updated turf of Douglas Sirk, in an archetypal suburb that’s decorated in the catchy bright colors of the Hollywood sixties.
The Hangover (2009)
Directed by Todd Phillips
influenced Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013)
Characters Plot Themes
Melissa McCarthy as Megan: If you compare Megan to Alan (Zach Galifianakis) in The Hangover, then you're just being lazy.
Indeed, the only title character who threatens to give Wiig a scene-stealing shove for the bouquet is the groom’s gruff-voiced sister, Megan, played by Melissa McCar-thy in a swaggering, goofily weird turn reminiscent of Zach Galifianakis in "The Hangover.”
In the lead-up to the film’s release, there were rumblings that Bridesmaids was a straight rip-off of The Hangover , in which a male wedding party bonds over roofies, tasers and Tyson.
Yes, "Bridesmaids" is pretty much a rip-off of "The Hangover" with a genitals swap-out.
Paul Feig is the director, but what makes Bridesmaids so striking is the near-absence of male figures, so that it becomes almost a mirror image of The Hangover.
Make no mistake, this is not another screechy, shallow, smug, hair-brainedfor lack of a better term"chick flick" like 2007's insufferable " License to Wed " or 2009's equally detestable " Bride Wars ," nor is it a female version of 2009's overrated, mean-spirited " The Hangover ," as so many are already labeling it as.
2016’s The Girl On The Train followed in its wake, and it seems that director Paul Feig ( Bridesmaids, Spy, Ghostbusters) has set up to contribute another story in the same mystery-thriller vein.
In light of media attention over the case, her mommy vlog goes viral.It would be easy to compare "A Simple Favor" to other recent films based on popular, female-driven literary thrillers2014's " Gone Girl " and 2016's " The Girl on the Train " instantly come to mindand, indeed, there are stylistic parallels in their whodunit, howdunit, and whydunit destinations.
Indeed, A Simple Favor: The Movie comes damn close to being a parody of the "murder mystery among the wine moms" genre, typified cinematically by 2014's Gone Girl and 2016's immodestly schlocky The Girl on the Train .
In The Girl on The Train , Emily Blunt, reeling and drunk after breaking up with Justin Theroux, uncovers a web of lies that leads to his messy demise, his comeuppance, in fact.
But the man behind crowd-pleasing comedies including Bridesmaids , Spy and The Heat turns out to be the perfect person to ensure that the adaptation of Darcey Bell’s 2017 novel A Simple Favor doesn’t just come off as another second-rate version of Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train .
Continuing Hollywood’s obsession with film adaptations of pulpy book club page-turners (think Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train and Big Little Lies), A Simple Favor is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Darcey Bell.
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson
influenced The Housemaid (2025)
Themes Visuals
This is nothing new – The Housemaid follows in the footsteps of Fifty Shades of Grey and the wildly successful Colleen Hoover-verse (Hooveiverse?) that blew up the internet with the offscreen drama surrounding Justin Baldoni’s adaptation of It Ends With Us earlier this year.
He successfully avoids the “male gaze” that plagued the latter two Fifty Shades of Grey films, where the camera seemed more preoccupied with female nudity than the male “lust object” the fanbase had come to see.
Extraña cruza entre Cincuenta sombras de Grey, Perdida, Atracción fatal y Romper el círculo…
…una transcripción intrascendente y poco inspirada de un ya intrascendente y poco inspirado éxito editorial (como pasó no hace tanto con 50 sombras de Grey)…