PLOT: Follows an ambitious chef as she opens a restaurant on a remote estate where she battles kitchen chaos, crushing self-doubts… and a haunting presence who threatens to sabotage her at every turn.
REVIEW: The restaurant business is murder. If The Menu and The Bear did not give us enough insight into the stress, anxiety, and sheer psychological warfare of being a chef, Gordon Ramsey and every cooking reality competition should have made it abundantly clear that the artisans that create haute cuisine are emotionally broken by the work they love. The latest Blumhouse offering, House of Spoils, takes the work of starting a restaurant to a new level with a tale of supernatural cookery that may have you rethinking any upcoming reservations at a fine dining establishment. Led by Ariana DeBose, House of Spoils presents a conventional horror yarn through a distinctly epicurean lens.
Ariana DeBose plays Chef, the unnamed star pupil of iconic chef Marcello (Marton Csokas). When investor Andres (Arian Moayed) allows Chef to open her own restaurant, she quits and moves to the remote countryside location for the new venue. Living at the expansive manor that will also serve as the restaurant, Chef develops a concept involving ingredients from their own garden. The idea quickly fizzles when everything brought into the house rots, prompting Chef to try and find an alternative menu. She discovers a gated garden near the house with unique herbs, vegetables, and fruits that are unlike any flavors she has tasted. Chef, alongside new sous-chef Lucia (Barbie Ferreira), experiments with new recipes that are astonishingly unique. But, along with the flavor experience, Chef begins to hallucinate about the prior owner of the home, a supposed witch.
Over the course of the film, Chef presents herself as a capable and strong leader, up to the task of running her own kitchen. But, as she faces obstacles like rotten food and a lack of staff, her inexperience as head chef becomes apparent to Andres. But, Chef pushes through towards the big opening of the new restaurant on the power of her unique recipes even though she begins experiencing hallucinations. At first, Chef sees bugs crawling in and out of her food before she sees spectres of gaunt, emaciated old women. Slowly, she learns about the old woman who lived in the house and how she led a coven in the woods. She also learns about the chef who she replaced and what he experienced in the now seemingly haunted house. Chef forges a tenuous bond with Lucia, but as they careen towards opening day, everyone’s faith in Chef is shaken by her increasingly erratic and hostile behavior.
As a horror film, House of Spoils is not very scary. The jump scare moments are telegraphed a mile away, and the rest are designed as gross-out moments involving either computer-generated bugs crawling around, fleeting glimpses of rotten food, or minor bloody injuries. What works far more greatly is the psychological side of the story, looking at how Chef must contend with the supernatural obstacles but even more so seeing how she faces a lack of confidence in herself as a leader, a chef, and a woman in a professional capacity. Ariana DeBose has played strong characters in her career, but she imbues Chef with a confidence that is hit or miss through House of Spoils. Her reluctance to be scared comes across as silly when she calls BS on the spirits haunting her restaurant. DeBose is good at playing a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but the film does not take advantage as much as it should or could.
Food stylist Zoe Hegedus (Midsommar, Poor Things, Dune: Part 1 and Part 2) was key to creating the realistic and distinctive dishes seen in the film, echoing the horror and beauty of cuisine put to great effect in projects like Hannibal and the thriller The Menu. House of Spoils is the second feature from Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Krudy who last collaborated on Blow the Man Down which they co-wrote and co-directed. While that film was more of a mystery with an indie band, House of Spoils is firmly within the wheelhouse of the countless Blumhouse-produced horror films that came before it. Jason Blum has made a fortune in creating horror movies and acquired unique independent projects. Still, House of Spoils feels like a half-realized project that could have been so much better had it chosen to focus on either the supernatural or the straight dramatic elements rather than a combination of the two.
Aside from showcasing Ariana DeBose’s talent in a leading role, House of Spoils is a wasted opportunity in multiple ways. Directors Cole and Krudy make a case for expanding their resumes with broader projects with bigger budgets as much as they do exploring more opportunities in the horror genre. Still, House of Spoils is a half-hearted attempt to tell a psychological horror story by forcing supernatural elements. There is nothing all that scary in this film that we have not seen countless times before, which makes any moment that we are supposed to feel scary less frightening due to its familiarity. House of Spoils wastes a solid premise by not sticking the landing, but it still benefits from having a talented lead take us through this horror story.
House of Spoils premieres October 3rd on Prime Video.
