House of Spoils disappointingly leaves the talents of Ariana DeBose on simmer with a formulaic straight to streaming horror film that fails to serve up any real scares or even an appealing story. 

 

The horror and thriller genre has always featured notable cooks, whether it be Hannibal Lecter and his fascination with serving up human meat or Chef Julian Slowik’s deadly dining experience in 2022’s The Menu. Hoping to join their ranks is Ariana DeBose’s unnamed chef in the latest Blumhouse supernatural horror film, House of Spoils. While Blumhouse is rather hit or miss on their films, especially the ones that are developed as a straight to streaming release, the inclusion of DeBose being announced months after her Academy Award win for West Side Story held promise for this title, especially with a supporting cast that included Arian Moayed, Barbie Ferreira, and Marton Csokas. But sadly, the story is severely undercooked, full of predictable and unsatisfying jump scares, and never delivers the chills desired by viewers, leaving this meal raw. 

 

Witches brew… cooking gourmet meals… is there a difference? While that would be a really interesting idea for a horror film, that is sadly not the route that House of Spoils takes. Instead, the film tells the story of a talented young chef starting her own restaurant in a rural country location, whose previous owner just happened to be a witch. It starts off spooky with our young chef seeing her food spoiling and infected with insects when no one else can, gradually building towards the ghost of the witch beginning to torment her as the chef fights to keep the opening of her restaurant on track. There is a premise that is well setup, teasing some sort of seance and witch’s brew or curse that has caused DeBose’s character to have become possessed with the vengeful spirit of the witch, but as the film enters its second half, the buildup fizzles out. The storylines get dragged down by their formulaic trajectory, all of which wrap up far too cleanly and too quickly to create an interesting watch. All conflict amongst the characters is glossed over; any ounce of horror is drained from the film, removing the creepy setup and aside from some poorly executed jump scares, there is little entertainment value to be had. And when the film ends on such a kumbaya moment, it’s hard not to question why you just spent the past one hundred minutes hoping for some decent scares only to be served up the exact opposite.