Witnessing Oscar winner Ariana DeBose throw her whole self into the terror that awaits in her new film House of Spoils, one would never know she’s a confessed “big fraidy cat” when it comes to horror flicks. Though she admits to watching movies like Skeleton Key with her hand shielding her eyes from the scarier parts, she’s all in on horror as a film genre to excavate social issues. And House of Spoils, now on Prime, taps into misogyny, toxic masculinity, and the rarified, inaccessible (to most) world of fine dining.
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“I have come to find that horror as a genre...I respect it because I think there's something that allows people to process, and maybe it is the sensation of being scared into it,” DeBose tells The Advocate. “Maybe that's the entrance point to processing. You have to first be afraid in order to relax and to [arrive at] understanding.”
From the writer/director team Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy, House of Spoils finds DeBose’s Chef on the brink of fine-dining stardom as she exits her longtime sous chef position under a male master chef who says things like, “You got to cook with your balls,” to become head chef of a remote high-end restaurant in upstate New York. Once there, Chef discovers her business partner Andres (Arian Moayed) has misrepresented what she's up against setting up her kitchen and dining room in the abandoned estate where there are more than a few bumps in the night.
An Oscar winner for her portrayal of Anita in West Side Story (2021) and a bona fide Broadway star in shows including Hamilton, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, and A Bronx Tale, DeBose is also a necessary activist for many causes, notably at the intersections of her identity a queer woman of color. She found House of Spoils, where the food Chef preps rots in the night and bugs infest her foam-topped delectable, was a fascinating vehicle to explore the topic of institutional limitations for women in the patriarchal world of fine dining.
Ariana DeBose and Barbie Ferreira in House of Spoils Balazs Glodi/Prime
As if coping with infestations, decay, and the apparitions of women who inhabited the property before her weren't enough, Chef is forced to mentor Andres’s inexperienced kitchen worker girlfriend, Lucia (Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira), as her sous chef. Faced with having to train Lucia, Chef unleashes a few sexist classics, like accusing her mentee of sleeping her way into the position.
“What was so fascinating for me about [Chef’s] journey is acknowledging that she was essentially forged in the fires of this environment that is riddled with toxic masculinity, but having to grapple with just how intrinsically ingrained it's become in her,” DeBose Says.
“I was very taken with the dichotomy of how Chef presents, and she's not the face that you believe you're going to meet when you walk into a fine dining experience. Yet she still wants to do this, and that is her goal,” she adds. “I thought that was really admirable: trying to find the way that she [can do] that successfully. So it's very logical that you take on some toxic traits because traditionally that can be a very elitist world that does feel impenetrable.”
DeBose has played queer on screen as Alyssa Greene in the movie version ofThe Prom and this year’s International Space Station thriller, I.S.S. While Chef’s sexuality isn’t broached in House of Spoils, there’s a recognizable sensibility in DeBose’s embodiment of her that adds a layer to the story.
Ariana DeBose as Chef in House of Spoils Balazs Glodi/Prime
“I thought it was really interesting to go on a ride with Chef, with Chef in my physical embodiment. Who, by the way, we never outright discuss her sexuality, but there's an energy there that you feel off of her. I love that because you shouldn't have to be expected to walk in a room and shout your sexuality first,” DeBose says. “You're a whole human. And that I think is really beautiful to watch those sharp edges that she holds so fast to, to try and fit into the box of fine dining — you watch those edges round over time. But she has to go through some spooky shit.”
From George A. Romero’s zombie classic Night of the Living Dead (1968) and its excoriation of mass conformity to Jordan Peele shining a light on everyday racists in Get Out, horror has held a funhouse mirror up to viewers. At House of Spoils' core, Chef discovers the women who once lived on the estate and cultivated a vibrant, self-sustaining garden from which they created sustenance and medicines, were demonized as witches by the townspeople. The topic of powerful women under attack resonates with DeBose.
“That was one of the themes or storylines that I also really loved because I do think it’s an age-old story, a tale as old as time. What is a witch, but a woman who knows her own mind and her own power? We're watching it play out today,” she says, referring to the upcoming presidential election and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I think we have somehow gotten into this pattern of being afraid of what we don't inherently understand instead of being open to learning. I am very unclear when learning became a danger,” DeBose adds. "I’m unclear at when that happened, but we're living in that time. I mean, we're looking at book bans for different reasons and a myriad of other things going on in the United States specifically.”
House of Spoils is available now on Prime.
Ariana DeBose and Barbie Ferreira in House of Spoils Balazs Glodi/Prime
Ariana DeBose as Chef in House of Spoils Balazs Glodi/Prime
