House of Spoils
The Amazon Blumhouse originals simply do not take any risks. The newest one, “House of Spoils,” from the same sophisticated duo behind the disgusting “Blow the Man Down,” is yet another film under this banner that fails to explore its most interesting concepts. It’s coasting along, yet another horror film that has the potential to be strange and groundbreaking but ends up being disappointingly meek. This is a film about the power of basic urges and the maternal connection which in this case is supposed to be the mother nature. It is supposed to be filthy, rough, and atmospheric. It isn’t enough of those things, leaving behind Oscar winner Ariana DeBose in the middle of a movie, which, I am afraid, is confused about its own plot. It mutes the pacing of a jump scare horror film and then out of nowhere, drops an unused twist in the last twenty minutes. Jason Blum may be a somewhat underrated still a capable powerhouse in the industry. But I would just like to see him encourage his kitchen staff to prepare more exciting dinners than the one we had.
Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy are the creators behind ‘House of Spoils,’ which centers around a chef (DeBose) who has been training for seven years in a high profile restaurant owned by one of the greats Marcello (Marton Csokas doesn’t have quite enough screen time). When he hears that she plans to leave and open up a restaurant in a secluded area, he immediately offers to raise her salary but she ignores his reasoning. With an impatient financier named Andres (Arian Moayed) in their corner, they wish to launch a ‘Destination Restaurant’ which is designed in a way to attract customers who would travel for more than 5 hours for just a meal. The movie’s restaurant is also located at a straight up remote haunted house. What could be better?
DeBose’s nameless chef cannot have it easy in that old house almost as soon as she moves into it. Bugs are found floating in some of the dishes, whereas the others appear to be rotten and decayed. No matter how well constructed the set is, at least where Cole and Krudy are concerned, this part fails completely. The premise of ‘House of Spoils” on paper was far better than its professional execution. The concept revolves around great depth in one’s dream profession, and paranormality to the extent of blending them. We are never presented as being in danger owing to the profession or a poltergeist.
The time was not long before our chef discovers an undiscovered area of the estate which expands her menus. The authors of the screenplay Cole and Krudy must be commended because it is just the case that haute cuisine has radicalized too much from the cord of direct on earth cooking. The most central part of House of Spoils, the creation of almost unbelieveable textures and flavors by the chef and her sous Lucia Silfanov (Barbie Ferreira) is undoubetdly the strongest part of the film.
The issues arise when “House of Spoils” has to remind itself that it is an October scary flick, but so to speak, it seems to be shying away from that remit. This is a movie that ought to get strange but is no more daring indeed than a cook who does not have faith in her knife skills. And it leaves DeBose stuck in the middle. Some have claimed that she is over-acting in this scene, or quite frankly I would say that acting is in the register of the quietest portions of the film, and all the other portions of the film are in volume six, making her look over the top, when in fact the movie does very little to create tension around her character.
At one point, a restaurant critic, Amara Karan, tells one of the negative attributes which hinders our heroine that his food is platitudinous, has no risk, and has no character. I would not be so harsh as to claim the film ‘House of Spoils’ is like that, but it is intriguing to view a film that takes the standpoint of how imaginative people can be fettered by their own risk aversion in a film which completely encapsulates that.
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