“House of Spoils,” released on Oct. 3 as an Amazon Prime Video original, follows a woman known only as Chef — played by Ariana DeBose — as she gets an opportunity to be the head chef at a brand new fine-dining restaurant. Giving up her position as a subsidiary to a prestigious Chef Marcello, she goes to live at the site of this new restaurant, a dilapidated house with a mysterious past and an even more mysterious garden in its backyard.

He said

“House of Spoils” adds another entry into the bizarre niche of fine-dining themed horror movies. Though at the same time calling “House of Spoils” a horror movie seems somewhat inaccurate. 

While produced by Jason Blum and Blumhouse TV, a subsidiary of the studio known for creating a lot of horror projects both good and bad, the film feels more like a thriller than its horror-esque trailer would have you believe.

Despite this muddled sense of identity “House of Spoils” has an interesting premise and a good opening. The film roots itself in the examination of intersectional tensions between race and gender in male-dominated industries.

The film’s horror element is inherently gendered as the house that Chef’s new restaurant is based out of was formerly occupied by a witch. As Chef discovers more about the history of the witch she becomes obsessed, characterizing the home and land as her muse. 

Chef seeks to take on the domineering role she learned from her time in high-pressure kitchens to help prove herself, creating tensions with her sous chef, Lucia — played by Barbie Ferreira. 

Through this tension the film examines race and privilege, as Lucia has similarly struggled to find her way into the culinary industry but didn’t have the same excruciating background Chef had to go through. 

While much of this commentary is interesting the film starts to unravel in its second act before a bizarre spiral in its final act. After the first act’s relatively slow burn, the second act arbitrarily accelerates.

As the film makes jumps for the sake of the plot many of the interesting elements start to become rushed and underdeveloped, the most frustrating of which is a somewhat cliche plot twist that undercuts and confuses the horror elements of the piece.

“House of Spoils” ends as a disappointment; there are plenty of better films to see but if you are looking for something new to watch you could do worse.

Garrett Hartman can be reached at [email protected].

She said

“House of Spoils” is a strange combination of “The Menu” and pretty much any other witchy-type thriller. It combines the culinary world with a witch-y component and a dash of who-dun-it mystery.

The film shows the main character, Chef, struggling as she leaves her job at a high-end restaurant in a male-dominated environment and enters into business on her own.

As she tries to traverse her new restaurant and the responsibilities that come with it, she becomes more aware of the out-of-the-ordinary history of the land and its former owner.

Chef at first feels more at one with the land and the ingredients used in her food after she learns about the “witch” that once owned the land.

With the help of this realization, she separates from the macho realism she was constantly exposed to at her old job and becomes more like herself and, well, down to earth.

This changes the way she treats herself and those who now work for her, but she’s constantly barraged by reality, specifically in the form of capitalism.

Andres — played by Arian Moayed — the person who brought her into the entire mess, is constantly pressuring her to be perfect, and after a few mistakes that he didn’t even try to help her with, he tries to cut her out of her own restaurant for the sake of appearance.

Throughout the course of the film, Chef goes back and forth on the witch-y history of the land. She starts listening to the town natives and after a few supernatural experiences she becomes convinced that the previous owner was evil.

After this “realization,” she turns her back on the land and returns to the macho asshole she used to be. This caused her business and food to suffer.

The true story of the previous owner unravels as the film pushes on … but at a certain point, that storyline becomes rushed as it fails to fully entwine the major points and twists.

The story ramps up and ramps up, but there is no real release and the film ends in a very unsatisfactory manner.

“House of Spoils” definitely sticks more to the psychological horror and light thriller side of the two genres, but it’s disappointing on both fronts.

The concept had so much potential to turn into a great commentary on ecofeminism and the importance of nature over gain, however, the true points got lost by the end of the film.

Multiple points, such as the main character’s name being reduced to “chef,” to the power struggle and relationship between chef and Lucia, as well as the unbelievable expectations placed on Chef all exemplify the pressures put on women in male-dominated careers and environments.

However, other than through scripting and sub-text, this point is not fully elaborated on.

I do not recommend it.

Ariana Powell can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].