Hokum lives up to its half-joking title by delivering a chiller that’s equal parts fun and spooky. While this latest film from rising writer-director Damian Mc Carthy (Oddity, Caveat) has a pitch perfect mastery of genre standards, it also manages to weave a story that will keep the viewer guessing until the very end. And while Hokum does have its fair share of shocking reveals, it’s Mc Carthy’s sense of playfulness that keeps one on their toes. It’s a film where even the most standard of moments don’t play out as one might expect. It’s a refreshingly ingenious film that still offers some classically frightful delights.
Adam Scott, in his best dramatic performance to date, stars as novelist Ohm Bauman, a frequently drunk, depressed, and supercilious blowhard who perpetually acts annoyed towards anyone that might want to chat him up. In the midst of polishing off the final volume in his highly lucrative Conquistador Trilogy, Ohm takes a side quest to Bilberry Woods, a hotel in the forests of Ireland, where he intends to scatter the ashes of his mother and father at the site of their honeymoon. Ohm treats almost everyone on staff at the hotel with some degree of disdain or open cruelty, save for a kindly bartender named Fiona (Florence Ordesh). While at the inn, harsh decisions made during a drunken stupor force Ohm into a lengthy hospital stay. When he awakens finds out it was Fiona that saved his life, Ohm heads back to the hotel to try and thank her, only to discover that she hasn’t been seen since the night after he went to hospital: Halloween. Although the hotel is about to close for the season, Ohm decides to hang around a bit longer, suspecting something isn’t right. With the help of a local hermit (David Wilmot), Ohm starts snooping around Bilberry Woods, with all signs pointing to the off limits and supposedly haunted Honeymoon Suite.
Mc Carthy’s material plays out like a Stephen King story transplanted to Ireland, but in all the best possible ways. Built around a truly awful person who musters up the courage to beat back their inner demons for the sake of accomplishing one noble and selfless act, Hokum is the sort of film where the storytelling technique has to do a lot of heavy lifting to make up for its unlikable protagonist. The reveals are measured out in such a way that the pacing feels both effortless and perfectly calculated. The sense of escalating throughout Hokum is masterful, punctuated with impeccable sound design and Mc Carthy’s love for both eerie silences and audio-visual jolts. It’s like the cinematic equivalent of a late night in an armchair with a book you can’t put down and a hesitancy to turn off the lights.
Sure, there are ghostly occurrences, witches, and even a classic “if you’re hearing this, I’m probably dead” recording, but everything in Hokum has its place. Even if you feel like you’ve seen elements of Hokum before, you likely haven’t seen them laid out in the same way Mc Carthy has here. It’s a film that benefits from going in as cold as possible and just taking the car straight through the funhouse. As a scary movie, Hokum delivers on its promise, but it’s also memorably entertaining beyond its downer vibes.
Hokum opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, May 1, 2026.
