House of Spoils-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

 

Plot: A chef begins to feel the pressure of opening a new restaurant and dealing with new investors. On top of everything, she must deal with what could either be hallucinations or a supernatural occurrence.

Quick Movie Review

A movie based on food? Well, then prepare for gastronomical delights and tasteful visuals.

Except... maybe not in this movie.

House of Spoils will not make you hungry nor make you crave gourmet food.

What we get to see is the pressure chefs face in the kitchen. The politics, the critique they must take productively, and in this movie deal with a witch who is hellbent on making sure you fail.

House of Spoils is entertaining for the most part, and Ariana DeBose perfectly embodies a harried chef who is trying to prove herself in a place where she is not being appreciated.

The climax spins the movie in a different direction, though, and may not be what you expect. The plot point doesn't fit as well as it should, which means that by the time the credits roll, you'll not be left with the satisfactory feeling of watching a good piece of cinema.

HOUSE OF SPOILS Movie Plot

Ariana DeBose plays Chef, who is working in a restaurant kitchen and doing well at her job. But at the end of her shift, she goes to see the restaurant's owner Marcello and announces that she is leaving to open her new restaurant.

Marcello offers to double her salary, but she is determined to have something of her own. Marcello dismisses her, and Chef gets apprehensive about her decision.

She drives up to the estate and meets with Andres, who is opening a new restaurant where she will be head chef. She wants to know why Magnus, a well-known chef, dropped out, but Andres doesn't meet her eye as he gives some excuse about things not going as planned.

Chef enjoys her first day off in years and meets with Lucia, whom Andres wants to hire as a sous chef. Chef isn't too sure, but a couple of shots in, and she decides to give Lucia a chance.

At the estate, she finds the restaurant in desperate need of cleaning. There's even rotten fruit left in one of the kitchen drawers. There is Alvin to help her, but he clearly isn't much help.

The kitchen is all set up, and Chef kneads the dough and marinades the fish. She is happy to start her new job.

The next morning, she is satisfied with the way the dough has risen, but the second she touches it, an insect crawls out. Chef tears open the dough and finds it crawling with bugs. She checks on the fish, and everything has mould in it. The garden where they are growing exquisite vegetables and herbs is ruined by a hungry hare.

Disgusted, she throws out everything, but that's when Andres calls to let her know that, by the way, she has to prepare a meal for the investors. Chef freaks out and tells him to postpone it as his kitchen has an infestation. Andres tells her to come up with a plan because he's not cancelling.

Chef enlists Alvin's help in getting some exquisite items from nearby stores. Alvin returns with supermarket stuff because the stores are closed on Sunday. Chef improvises with the ingredients she has and confidently greets her guests.

One of them is the main investor, Toli, and another is a popular food blogger and critic Hiral.

Chef innovates with box food and manages to serve a decent meal, but on one occasion, she spots an insect crawling out of Toli's risotto.

In the next instant, the entire dish is crawling with insects. Chef makes an excuse about the spoon being too hot as she smashes an insect that crawled out of the plate. Since it vanishes in seconds, chances are that Chef is imagining them.

Andres talks to her after the entire course has been served, and Chef is ready to face comments about her food. Toli loved it, but the Chef goes ahead and asks for Hiral's unbiased opinion, considering she is not her friend, and so the blogger can be truthful.

Hiral comments that the food is too safe and that she couldn't find Chef's voice in it. This discourages Toli as well. Perhaps Chef should not have asked the critic for her honest opinion after all!

Later, Andres tells her that Toli is in two minds after hearing Hiral's review and so wants her out. Chef practically chases and begs Andres to let her keep her job since she gave up her restaurant job with Marcello and her apartment. Andres almost doesn't listen to her but relents when Chef asks for two weeks to prove herself.

Andres grants her two weeks, and Chef gets to work. She can't find any good recipes and keeps crossing and cancelling things. Lucia is in the kitchen cutting carrots and is not doing a good job.

Chef snaps at her and tells her that she needs to work on her knife skills. Lucia tells her that she has always been relegated to making salads because the men in the kitchen treated her poorly. Chef implies she won't treat her that good either unless she proves herself to her. Then, to spook her, Chef chops the carrots without looking down. Lucia gets scared and walks away.

The next day, the hare has ruined the garden again. Chef goes to check it out and comes across odd ingredients and herbs in the garden. Intrigued, she tries them out. She finds them delicious and keeps trying several petals and plants.

In the next scene, Chef is throwing up and has a bad case of diarrhoea.

But an idea pops into her head. She thinks about using these ingredients to enhance her menu. She tries and tests new herbs and finds those that are safe to consume.

Lucia begins to help her as well, and both are excited with the new recipes they have developed. There's one where mouldy bread is also part of the dish. Who knew that was something people enjoyed eating while others threw it away?

Andres tries out all the unconventional dishes and is impressed. He arranges for another dinner to impress more friends and family since Toli has backed out.

He lets Chef know at one point that he has put everything in this restaurant and that it must succeed.

Chef is still dealing with pressure, and it doesn't help that Alvin told her about the coven of witches in the area that used to practice dark arts. One of them was never seen again.

Chef begins to have vivid and weird dreams that she can't explain,  plus someone keeps coming whispering her to Feed the Soil.

One night, she hears sounds in the kitchen and finds an intruder. She bravely approaches him, and when he turns around, she sees it is Magnus, and he is eating his own hand.

The police and medics are called, and Chef accuses Andres of hiding the truth from her. Andres claims that Magnus couldn't take the pressure of running a restaurant and went mad.

But Chef begins to wonder if the previous owner of the estate, the witch, may he sabotaging her.

Realizing she may end up like Magnus, she decides to stop using the witch's herbs. A day before the dinner, while they are prepping for the customers in the restaurant, Chef announces that they are no longer using herbs and substituting with something else. Lucia doesn't think it's a good idea to change the menu at the last minute. Chef insults her, and Lucia walks away.

Chef tries to deal with everything without Lucia but is quickly overwhelmed. While giving instructions, she is also chopping the chives and ends up cutting a bit of her finger. At the same time, one of the customers ends up having an allergic reaction.

Chef collapses under pressure.

The next day, having calmed down, Chef heads to her kitchen and makes amends with her staff. Lucia shows up, and  Chef tells her that she is glad she is back and that she needs her.

Lucia looks surprised, and Andres walks in to announce that he has  named Lucia head chef because  Chef has been underperforming.

Chef follows Andres all the way to the wine Cellar and demands she gets her kitchen back. Andres, nervous about Chef's temperament, locks her in the Cellar.

Lucia comes out and wants to talk to Chef, but Andres lies about Chef taking a payout.

Chef calls for help, but no one listens. She is even more rattled when she senses someone behind her and whispering to "feed the soil."

HOUSE OF SPOILS Ending Explained

Chef finds a tunnel and thinks it may be her way out. Instead, she finds a skeleton lying ahead.

Chef gets spooked and tries to go back but ends up causing the rocks to fall and block her way out.

Realizing there is only one way left, she crawls ahead and sees the woman wearing a ring with the symbol she had seen carved on a tree in the garden.

The woman's eyes open, and she lets Chef see what happened to her. The witch was a medic. She and the other women were making medicines to help people but were branded as witches.

The Chef realizes the witch was innocent. In the next moment, she finds her way out.

Back in the kitchen, everything has fallen into chaos, and Lucia is unable to manage the food. There is a fire in the kitchen because something gets burned in the oven.

Everyone gets out of the restaurant, and Andres sees Chef emerge. She has finally killed the hare and carrying it like a trophy.

While some customers leave, Hiral stays on, intrigued when she sees Chef building a bonfire. Andres comes up with the idea to seat everyone around the bonfire and have a grill party.

All the customers enjoy the new experience and love the food. Chef concentrates on preparing the hare with vegetables, which, when cut, resemble the symbol the witch used.

Chef understands that the food she is making is healing and satisfying her customers. This was her purpose all along.

The movie ends on a happy note.

My Take On The Movie

HOUSE OF SPOILS is engaging for the most part, but the ending reveal about the witch turns it into a different kind of movie. Suddenly, it isn't horror, but a fantasy drama with a forced happy ending. There's a lesson somewhere about finding purpose or telling the world about herbs that can heal, but that message doesn't come out naturally.

On the whole, House of Spoils belongs to Ariana DeBose, who does a commendable job with her role.

Scare Scale: 3/5