Paul Feig took inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock during the making of The Housemaid

The Housemaid director Paul Feig was inspired by the legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock during the making of the thriller.

Paul Feig was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock when making The Housemaid.

The 63-year-old filmmaker has detailed how the Master of Suspense and his love of the “absurd” influenced the tone of the erotic psychological thriller, which stars Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried.

Feig told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast: “What I love about Hitchcock is he always lets you have fun. I’ve watched so many thrillers in my life that take themselves so seriously that I don’t feel there’s room for fun.

“I’m very religious about the thriller genre, but how can I bring (laughs) into that genre and get the double response out of the audience? We’re treating the story seriously, but there’s something wonderfully absurd about this dangerous situation.”

However, the Bridesmaids filmmaker doesn’t adopt the same methodic planning as Hitchcock.

Feig said: “I leave myself very open.

“When I started my career, I obviously loved Hitchcock, and he storyboarded every shot, didn’t shoot any more frames than he needed so he could control the edit.

“I tried to do that, but you get to the set, and people have ideas, and you’re slapping their ideas down because it takes you off your plan. And I realised early on that I was cutting off all the creativity from my cast.”

Feig revealed that he is extremely reliant on test screenings when developing movies and even uses night vision goggles to examine the behaviour of an audience.

He said: “I am very slavish to test screenings.

“I have 10 weeks (to put together) a director’s cut where no one else can mess with me. I’ll do my first recruited screening at about five weeks, just to say, okay, I think this is working, it’s all together now, but I don’t want to fall in love with anything.”

The Last Christmas filmmaker added: “I find night vision to be incredibly helpful because you can see people are watching passively versus when they start sitting forward and looking around at each other.”

The Housemaid has proved to be a critical and commercial hit and bosses at Lionsgate Studios have greenlit a sequel, with Feig returning behind the camera and Sydney reprising her role as Millie Calloway in an adaptation of Freida McFadden’s book The Housemaid’s Secret.

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson said in a statement: “It’s clear from both the global box office and from the outpouring on social media that audiences have responded strongly – and audibly – to the totally unique and truly theatrical experience of The Housemaid and want to know what happens next.

“We believed in these stories from the very beginning, and we are beyond excited to bring the next chapter of Millie’s story to life on-screen…

“The Housemaid’s Secret is another wildly thrilling book in Freida’s series that has captivated readers worldwide, and we look forward to translating it into a similarly rousing and riotous moviegoing experience.”