Hokum, 2026.
Written and Directed by Damian McCarthy.
Starring Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio, Ezra Carlisle, Mallory Adams, and Sioux Carroll.
Synopsis:
A horror writer visits an Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, unaware the property is said to be haunted by a witch.
In writer/director Damian McCarthy’s audacious haunted hotel ride Hokum (the follow-up to the filmmaker’s horror grab bag Oddity, which demonstrated a wealth of solid ideas that never quite fully came together, even if the result was undeniably atmospheric and spooky), Adam Scott’s seemingly celebrated writer’s-blocked Ohm Bauman hates happy endings and he is currently struggling to come up with his latest downer of a finale. As the rest of the plot begins to kick in, one begins to wonder if Damian McCarthy will feel the same way. For a film eager to please with the occasional jump scare and familiar folklore, including witches and ghosts, the story itself is rather dark, with one harrowing revelation after another.
There is also a stroke of brilliance in casting Adam Scott, as the miserable novelist is amusingly a jerk to nearly everyone he comes across, pulling from his persona as a comedic actor, playing a character as miserable as the disturbing books he writes (he is working on something called The Conquistador Trilogy, and it seems to be popular enough with those around him recognizing his identity and wondering how it will end). It is also worth mentioning that a framing device shows glimpses of the creative process behind this ending, featuring a man and a young boy (Austin Amelio and Ezra Carlisle, respectively) stranded in a desert, facing harsh choices. Admittedly, this makes for a jarring opening (brilliant editing transitions notwithstanding), though by the end it becomes clear why these scenes are necessary to the overall narrative.
Nevertheless, Ohm has retreated to the Irish countryside hotel that was once a honeymoon for his deceased parents, possibly having delayed his wanting of spreading their ashes there while also hoping the setting will bring him some inspiration. As mentioned, he isn’t interested in making any friends, telling a bartender (Florence Ordesh) who is opposed to his cruel book endings that maybe she will enjoy one of the “shitty movie adaptations” sanitized with a happy ending (doubling as a humorous industry inside joke), brushing off a nearby homeless wanderer living in the woods (David Wilmot) speaking of potions made from goat milk that can open the mind into seeing and experiencing the supernatural, physically harming a fan bellhop (Will O’Connell) writing for free in his spare time (which the self absorbed author quickly puts down not being a real writer), and irritating other hotel staff.
Soon after establishing Ohm’s rude relations to these characters, there is a tragic incident that occurs that won’t be spoiled, both revealing more about the state of his mind while also pushing the story forward roughly two weeks, just in time for the hotel’s closing time for the season, and a mystery involving the disappearance of that aforementioned bartender. On the one hand, you see Damian McCarthy working overtime to find small contrivances and the machinations at work to get this plot into motion, with Ohm finding himself alone in the hotel at night to investigate, feeling guilty and partly responsible for what happened.
It takes a bit of time to accept that the film is rushing past something severe that just happened to the writer, transitioning into horror mode. Damian McCarthy still has some ways to go as a screenwriter, in that he overstuffs his movies with concepts and ideas that don’t always feel smoothly executed. However, that is more than made up for with otherwise confident storytelling, unafraid to gradually reveal the answers to major plot points fairly early on. Even having most of the information, how this will end is anyone’s guess, and part of what makes this such an electric fright show at times
By giving viewers answers to some of those other questions, it allows for greater focus on Ohm as a character and on his past, which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, riddled with trauma. Ohm also has to contend with a witch who may or may not be contained in the abandoned honeymoon suite, as he hopes to find traces of the missing woman, while also reckoning with the past and how it has negatively influenced who he is today and his nihilistic writing.
With unsettling reflection shots from the corner of a TV screen, a terrifying animatromic at one point divulging some back story, the sheer dread that comes from this isolation, other supernatural presences, some truly creepy production design spanning creepy miniature statues (sometimes homed in on to showcase their unsettling voyeuristic eyes) that play a part opening up other areas of the suite (parts of the film are akin to watching Adam Scott solving puzzles inside a Resident Evil game), and a tense sequence in which the novelist desperately tries to alert someone for help once he becomes locked in an area, the direction is strikingly confident, propulsively eerie, and certainly makes entertaining use of the numerous ingredients. Hokum is fiendishly fun without losing any sense of what it wants to say about its lonely, abrasive, troubled writer.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
