I don't want to "spoil" anything, but watching this movie isn't worth it.

It was advertised as horror thriller. As aforementioned, neither horror nor thriller. The movie fails to understand what this genre is. "Scary" scenes were actually funny.

What I liked about this movie is the stubbornness of the protagonist. She is the type of character I would love to see in a horror movie. And the ending was both surprising and disappointing.

Unfortunately, downsides surpass the upsides. Perhaps, trying to make a horror movie about a restaurant chef was a bad idea. Such an idea could have been used in a different genre of movie.

Sure, it's not the best horror-thriller ever, but I was still reasonably entertained 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, although the fact that this old mansion turns out to be haunted of course is not. 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 as what to expect next.

But then we were confronted by the shimmering ghost of the former owner, apparently a woman interested in natural ingredients but considered by the locals as a witch, and the story rapidly lost its focus. The chills and scares diminished, the ghost got hardly any background; and the chef turning rather abruptly raving mad, and still capable of totally impromptu creating her best dinner-menu ever, was really too far of a stretch.

Ariana DeBose did a great job as the at first firm and resolute, but gradually mentally overwrought chef, and I liked Arian Moayed as her relentless, opportunistic financial back-up. The photography is fine, and there's initially some criticism discernible at the posh and hedonistic restaurant-visitors who revel over exotic flavors, as well as a hint to better appreciation of the use of herbs and other natural ingredients. 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 the rest.

Food movies have been all the rage the last few years. And almost all of them have been pretty good. 'House of Spoils' is sadly the first real letdown in the sub-genre that I've seen. It felt very much like a film that didn't have enough of any one thing, so tried to throw multiple things at the wall in the hope that one of them would stick.

The end result is a bit of a chaotic mess - and not a particularly interesting one either. The film is probably at its most interesting when it is just being a regular kitchen drama. But even then all the drama and obstacles feel very forced.

I had hopes that all the grind of the first hour was just setting up for a strong finish. Unfortunately the final 20-30 minutes are probably the most dull part of the film. It really does whimper home. This one wasn't for me. 4/10.