MY CALL: Really light on the horror, mild on haunting atmosphere, and rich in tasting menu visuals. This is more where contemporary dark fantasy meets horror, and perhaps more a movie for foodies than horror fans in many ways. MORE MOVIES LIKE House of Spoils: For sure The Menu (2022), and while not horror it can be emotionally horrifying so… The Bear (2022-2024).
After turning down a lucrative offer to stay at her job, chef (Ariana DeBose; I.S.S., Westworld) leaves her current employer to follow her dream (or compulsion) to open her own restaurant and be head chef of her very own high-end destination dining experience.
Like an amuse-bouche to kick off a tasting menu, kitchen visuals of stainless steel, immaculate white cooking staff uniforms, and slicing and torching and delicately positioning gorgeously plated entrees tease our eyes to want more.
This film doesn’t take us into the rough emotional trenches of The Bear (2022-2024) or Chef’s Table (2015-2024) to illustrate the kind of person, and the kind of compulsion and its psychological baggage, that leads to the inception of Michelin star restaurants. However it gives it a fair gleaning for those unfamiliar. Our chef “has to” do this. She turns down having her salary doubled and comes from having not a single day off in seven years. This is not a goal. It’s a destiny.
As a serial indulger of Michelin star tasting menus and the pageantry that accompanies it, I’m mildly disappointed but understanding in this film’s approach. The presentation and explanation of courses is kept light. It spares no detail, but it almost seems casual and devoid of the reverence its creation deserves. But not everyone knows this world, and we’re not here to have meat and potatoes horror fans suffer over-sophisticated explanations of concoctions being shoehorned down their throats. So I’ll accept this gentle introduction to this way of life. And for those who want a closer idea, even if a bit over-the-top in presentation, try The Menu (2022).
Exploring the estate her investor Andres (Arian Moayed; Succession) procured for their restaurant, Chef finds an eclectic assortment of quite probably cursed curios. It’s as if someone ransacked the basement from The Cabin in the Woods (2012) and decorated this esoteric house with its witchy wares of questionable histories. Probably haunted. Or so, the movie seems to want us to think so.
She renovates, cleans, and begins test-kitchening dishes. But within a day, everything is unimaginably foul, rotten, corrupted, or infested with vermin. Her garden has been razed overnight by rabbits, her assistant is inept and considers chicken an adequate substitute for monkfish, and things just couldn’t possibly be going worse. The stress is immense. But—that’s the job. She bucks up and prepares a test menu, during which we begin to wonder—is the estate haunted, or is she experiencing some sort of psychological episode.
With a positive turn, we wander into cooking and recipes that feel almost witch-ishly communing with nature. The imagery of the food preparation remains a lovely spectacle. With a creepy turn, Chef continues to learn more about the estate, its hidden nooks, and the former “witch” owner. For everything that seems to go right, something new seems to go very wrong.
As a horror movie, this is just maybe okay. But as a movie for lovers of the culinary arts, I just loved this. So much splendid attention went into the food, the process of discovery and failure, the plating, the workshopping, the adjusting… if you love fine food, you’ll probably enjoy this film. Written and directed by Danielle Krudy and Bridget Savage Cole (The Stand), this movie was clearly challenging to market. This is more where contemporary dark fantasy meets horror.