House of Spoils

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")

The story was fairly original, but those looking for horror will be disappointed. This is something a bit closer to Practical Magic with a dash of Like Water for Chocolate magic realism and a garnish of witchy ghost. It feels like a fairly niche film, but for those who enjoy that niche; it's a delightful little unexpurgated Grimm's fairy tale of movie.

The dialogue definitely veers into clunky here and there, but I feel like this could be a sleeper late night snack film. DeBose brings a controlled physicality to her role which helps make the silent moments shine. The characters are two dimensional in the way of a slightly expanded fairy tale: where the fairy tales use archetypes, the movie adds a touch of nuance to the characters, though they could have fleshed them out a bit more. None of the other actors really throw themselves into the slightly absurd premise the way deBose does, and without that slightly unhinged commitment, they can't paper over weaknesses in the plot or writing in the same way.

But if you want a sort of Casa-de-Espíritus-light, set in a fine dining haunted house, this could be movie for you.

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.

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.

I was looking for a horror movie to stream, and settled on this without high expectations. Then I was pleasantly surprised to find I was intrigued and wanted to keep watching this under rated find. This is pretty decent story. Far better than the usual slasher with a chainsaw, or me too haunted house with footsteps upstairs and curtains blowing in the breeze. Surprisingly good acting all around, though I wasn't familiar most of the cast. DeBose did a fine job here. Very little blood, gore, or even special effects. Which says something about a story that can stand on it's own without them. Recommended, for something more chill and subtle in the horror genre.