Sorry, Zendaya’s tennis movie: Blumhouse’s supernatural answer to ‘The Bear’ is cooking up a storm on streaming and the game might soon be over

Complain all you want about it not being a comedy series (even though its levity is precisely the reason it can leverage its drama so well), but the power of The Bear is completely and utterly undeniable. Indeed, never before have the denizens of FX been so in touch with the symbiotic organism of kitchen life and eldritch anxiety, and they never will be again.

Its reach has been so mighty, in fact, that it’s opened up a lot of creative opportunities for stories about kitchens, chefs, and the terrible things that they both endure and enable. Not all of them can claim to be successful, but House of Spoils very much can.

Per FlixPatrol, the Amazon-original, Blumhouse-produced supernatural horror film has soared to number two on the Prime Video film charts in the United States on this day of Oct. 4, and it’s earned every hour. The film stars Ariana DeBose as a chef known only to us as Chef, who goes all in on an opportunity to be a head chef at a remote, yet-to-open restaurant. She quickly falls in love with the natural ingredients that the building’s garden area provides, but in order to navigate this brave new culinary world, she’ll have to contend with the spirit of a witch who takes a none-too-subtle interest in the chef’s presence.

It’s a tremendous exercise on the relationship between elitism and its subsequent ability to disconnect us from nature. DeBose’s chef demonstrates Carmy-coded talent in the realm of fine dining, capable of transforming the most humdrum ingredients into a pretty remarkable feast (deconstructed Caesar salad, anyone?). Nevertheless, she remains unsatisfied until she happens upon the nutritional/medicinal power of the weeds and herbs and bugs that have nourished mankind long before the misguided advent of foie gras.

But in order to fully appreciate what these ingredients represent, the chef must take an enormous step outside of the high-end comfort zone she worked so hard to build for herself, and instead point that tenacity towards her spiritual return to the Earth. She can’t just co-opt the dietary comforts of the old ways; she must embrace the old ways in their entirety.

Indeed, don’t let the 55 percent critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes fool you; if you’re wise enough to not evaluate it by its lackluster scares, it’s a rewarding watch indeed.

Fourth-place Challengers might have you believe otherwise, though. Luca Guadagnino’s romantic drama previously held the space that House of Spoils now occupies, but this will admittedly hardly be a setback in the grand scheme of things. The trifecta of Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor in the leading roles are just one of many boons harbored by the tennis-centric masterclass, which will almost certainly go on to be an awards season contender. House of Spoils, for all its worth, will reach no such height.

So while Challengers‘ time in the streaming sun may have been dumped onto a very deserving House of Spoils, its distinction as a heavy favorite for soundtrack awards and a strong contender for screenplay recognition is sure to soften that blow quite a bit. All this, while the esoteric subtleties of DeBose’s latest feature film are given the chance to flourish. It’s a great day over at the Prime Video charts.