The Housemaid

A music teacher’s comfortable family life unravels when his new housemaid sets her sights on him, in Kim Ki-young’s lurid, rediscovered Korean horror classic.

Dong-sik, a middle-aged music teacher, agrees to hire a mysterious young housemaid to help his pregnant wife around the house and care for their two precocious children. Before long, she makes a play for him, and her advances take an increasingly disturbing turn. As her obsession deepens, she proves willing to cross any line to have him, and the family’s comfortable life begins to unravel.

Curator's note
Kim Ki-young’s lurid horror film The Housemaid was immensely popular in South Korea on its release but remained relatively unknown abroad. It took a restoration by the Korean Film Archive, in association with the Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, for critics to herald it as a rediscovered masterpiece.

Widely considered South Korea’s first foray into the horror genre, The Housemaid was also an inspiration for Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture. Bristling with class warfare and feverish melodrama, the film is a provocative delight, and its cautionary tale hasn’t lost any of its shock value.