Aahana Swrup
In Prime Video’s horror film ‘House of Spoils,’ the narrative blends uncanny witchcraft with the world of the culinary arts to present a tale about dwindling sanity fuelled by obsession. The narrative revolves around an enterprising chef who aspires to open a restaurant of her own. When an opportunity presents itself through investor Andreas, the Chef throws herself entirely into the project, eager to make her dreams a reality. The remote house Andres picks to transform into a “fine dining experience” ends up harboring supernatural secrets. Thus, the house’s past casts a dark shadow over the duo’s dream restaurant and its chef’s predicament.
While focusing on the tense build-up to the opening night of the Chef’s restaurant, the story introduces a competing establishment into the narrative: the HAAS at Pine Hill restaurant. The elegance of the gourmet restaurant is expected to leave an impression on the viewers!
Erik Haas and His Pine Hill Restaurant are Fictional
‘House of Spoils’ is firmly cemented in the realm of fiction due to its supernatural-driven storyline. For the same reason, most of the elements presented within the story can be traced back to the imagination of the directors/screenwriters Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy. HAAS at Pine Hill and its owner, Erik Haas, are no exceptions and remain constricted within the confines of this fictionality. The on-screen restaurant enters the narrative as an inspiration to the Chef and Andreas as they set out to build their passion project.
From its appearance, HAAS at Pine Hill seems to have perfected the formula for a remote fine dining establishment that follows through on its promise of a compelling experience that draws its patrons out to its remote setting. From unconventional seating plans to open architecture that complements its natural surroundings, the restaurant maintains a high-end ambiance. Although there isn’t an exact real-life counterpart to the establishment, the idea of a restaurant submerged in its neighboring nature persists outside the film’s narrative. Thus, viewers can find similar destinations across the globe. Sweden’s Stedsans, an off-grid resort near Gothenburg, and California’s Harbor House Inn are two examples. Although neither of these establishments is revealed to be the inspiration behind the on-screen restaurant, they are unignorably similar.
In ‘House of Spoils,’ HAAS at Pine Hill is specifically presented early on to give the viewers an idea of Andreas and the Chef’s vision for their own restaurant. Therefore, by setting up expectations early on, the narrative efficiently showcases the rapid downfall of the protagonist’s passion project as the haunted house slowly takes over her sanity. As such, by the end, when the Chef has taken the restaurant into an entirely different route, it almost presents an antithesis to the fine dining experience at HAAS. Therefore, the latter establishment draws most of its narrative significance by offering contrast and becoming a narrative foil for the protagonist’s final resolution.
Read More: House of Spoils Ending, Explained
