House of Spoils

Director duo Coke and Krudy manages to set up a an interesting starting point, that even, lo and behold!, seems to bring some new settings and approaches to the horror genre. As "House of Spoils" progresses however, it turns into a repetitive odyssey of insecure filmmaking. Constantly failing to pack a punch and stir up any scares, the convoluted ending gives "House of Spoils" a strong flavor of early 2000s made-for-TV movies. Whatever the directors serve you, it's impossible to work out what they want to tell us. Are they satirizing pretentiousness? Some vague environmental themes? This film leaves you hungry for a horror movie that goes its lengths to actually scare you. Like craving McDonald's after dinner at an overpriced restaurant.

This is a movie that caught my attention because of the actors attached to it. Also, I've enjoyed movies like The Menu (2022) and tv shows like The Bear (2022-) that focus on cooking and the restaurant industry. After watching this movie, the movie's title literally says everything you need to know about the quality and it was also produced by Blumhouse.

Positives for The House of Spoils (2024): Ariana DeBose gives a great performance as the main protagonist, no surprising given she is an Academy Award Winner. I definitely believe her as this chef struggling in the restaurant industry and she does a fantastic job whenever she has to go crazy. I also liked Barbie Ferreira as Lucia, Arian Moayed as Andres and Marton Csokas as Marcello. The cooking sequences themselves are very well handled, but that's just me because I don't cook. And finally, there are a couple of decent horror scenes.

Negatives for The House of Spoils (2024): This movie definitely feels like a Blumhouse horror movie in many ways. There are some moments with bad dialogue that stick out. I also didn't think the movie did a great job at exploring the history of this old restaurant and its previous owner, but then again Blumhouse tends to do this a lot. The movie feels like any other generic haunted building movie with little to no effort. And finally, the ending of this movie was very anti-climatic.

Overall, The House of Spoils isn't one of the worst Blumhouse movies, but it is still a bad movie. Honestly if you enjoy a lot of the movies from Blumhouse, you can give it a watch. If you're someone who is tired of the same old generic movies from this movie studio, then I suggest you skip this one.

The ambitious assistant (Ariana DeBose) of the famous Chef Marcello (Marton Csokas) quits her job to work as a Chef in a new remote restaurant in the countryside, despite the offer from Marcello to double her salary. She delivers her apartment and moves to live in the restaurant owned by Andres (Arian Moayed). The place is dirty with insects, and she has hard work to clean the kitchen. Andres is in a hurry to open the place since he has many debts and invites a group of selected friends, including his investor, to write reviews about the new place. However, there is an infestation of insects and a rabbit destroys her vegetable garden, and the Chef loses her supplies and is forced to improvise dishes. But the famous food critic Hiral Sen (Amara Karan) does not like the food, the investor gives up the business and Andres fires her. But the Chef asks for one more chance to Andres that reluctantly accepts her request. She chases the rabbit to kill it and sees a creepy garden with several plants. She tastes them with her assistant Lucia (Barbie Ferreira) and they decide to use them in her new trial with several guests. Meanwhile the Chef is haunted by nightmares, and she learns that a witch lived in that area and was the previous owner of the restaurant, but she vanished. Will the Chef and the restaurant succeed?

"House of Spoils" (2024) is neither a thriller nor a horror movie, but the story of an ambitious and arrogant woman that wants to be a Chef. She accepts the challenge of working in a new restaurant and is pressed by the new situation. The plot is confusing, and it seems that the previous owner, who was falsely accused to be a witch, haunts her to find her body and learn her true story. Ariana DeBose performs an obnoxious character and has a histrionic performance in the role of the Chef, abusive with Lucia most of the time. The pointless conclusion does not let the viewer know what is the point of the intriguing, but messy plot. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa Mórbida" ("The Morbid House")

Sure, it's not the best horror-thriller ever, but I was still reasonably entertained, at least till the (slightly deflative) end. The premise of an ambitious cook trying to create her own restaurant in an isolated and dilapidated mansion is pretty original for a horror, the atmosphere is pleasantly creepy, and for the first hour the mounting pressure on the chef (Ariana DeBose) to perform, while more and more strange and inexplicable happenings are undermining her confidence and sanity, kept me curious about what to expect next.

But after we were confronted with the shimmering ghost of the former owner, who was apparently a woman interested in natural ingredients but considered by the locals to be a witch, the story rapidly lost its focus. The chills and scares lessened, the ghost got hardly any background; and the chef turning rather abruptly raving mad, but still capable of totally impromptu creating her best dinner-menu ever, was really too far of a stretch.

Ariana DeBose nevertheless gave a strong performance as the at first firm and resolute, but gradually mentally overwrought chef, and Arian Moayed did a great job too as her relentless, opportunistic financial back-up. The photography is fine, and there's even some social criticism discernible at posh and hedonistic restaurant-visitors who revel over exotic flavors, as well as a hint to better appreciation of the use of natural ingredients and nature in general. But the rough way in which the chef seizes, kills and roasts a poor rabbit to make it the height of her prize-dinner seemed to me totally out of character with this supposed love of nature.

The movie is well done, cinematography, acting, dialogues. The story contains something that's pretty out there and is at times hard to watch. I'm a chef myself, but I'm critical when it comes to fine and "haute cuisine". The main element of the cooking I find inspiring, but like I mentioned, it's hard to watch in context of the basis of the story. What I also liked was the ending but not in the sense of how it all turned out. I mean rather the scene/picture of the snobby guests sitting together with all cooks and employees outside at the fire. This scene alone could be an inspiration for a complete different story/movie, no matter which genre.

Unfortunately it's not enough for me to give it more than an average rating / 5 out of 10 stars. When I give 5 stars it means I made it to the end without getting bored. Not sure I would recommend it to friends or thus to anyone. Simply because there's just not enough in it. Better watch "The Menu" instead, if you haven't already.