A horror writer visits an Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, unaware that the property is said to be haunted by a witch.
Irish writer-director Damian McCarthy has only made three scary feature films, but they are held in high regard. Rather than relying on gratuitous violence, they are filled with atmospheric tension, folk horror, and creepy set pieces. His 2024 movie, “Oddity,” stands as a prime example—a chilling supernatural revenge tale that doubles as a claustrophobic haunted house mystery. Wherever you thought the story was going, McCarthy filled the film with deliberate misdirection to trick you all the way through.
With “Hokum,” McCarthy delivers an atmospheric, psychological folk-horror that appears, at the outset, to be pretty straightforward, but as the film unravels, so does the narrative, reminding you that in McCarthy’s world, nothing is ever quite as it seems.
American author Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) takes a trip to Ireland to scatter his deceased parents’ ashes. He decides to check into the hotel they visited many years ago when they first got married, the Bilberry Woods Hotel, located in rural Ireland. While talking to some of the employees, he discovers that one of the rooms in the hotel, the Honeymoon Suite, has been closed for years because it is supposedly haunted. When he inquires with Fiona (Florence Ordesh), the bartender, she tells him that the owner of the hotel, Cob (Brendan Conroy), closed and sealed the room after becoming convinced it was haunted by the Cailleach —a figure from local legend said to abduct the living and drag them in chains to the underworld.
Naturally, Ohm is dismissive and doesn’t believe the story, but when he gets a chance, he makes his way into the room, only to find himself locked inside with no way out. As darkness falls, he begins to experience strange goings-on, including supernatural visions of his dead mother. He discovers a dumbwaiter and uses it to descend to the basement. Once down there, however, he finds himself standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit hallway. As the lights systematically flicker out, a shadowy figure emerges from the darkness, leaving Ohm with the chilling realization that the legend may be real.
What I love about “Hokum” is that the set-up is effortlessly simple. An American visiting rural Ireland is told that a witch haunts a room in the hotel he is occupying. And that’s it. That information stays in the back of our minds, and as we watch the story unfold and Ohm becomes trapped in the haunted room, we suddenly remember the witch. But what does she look like? Is she scary? Is she beautiful? What happens when you come face to face with her? None of this is ever explained in the set-up, but your imagination takes over and begins to contemplate what she must look like, what she sounds like, and naturally, it is nothing like the actual reveal. The film thrives on this sense of the unknown, delivering on its promise of unease.
McCarthy is an expert at building slow-burn atmospheric tension, especially creating deep primal dread with minimal elements. Once Ohm is trapped in the room, there is not much to see; it is unremarkable, almost drab, with outdated wallpaper and carpeting. The one item that we do see very clearly is a clock with a tiny built-in mechanical figure designed to swing toward a gong. This is shown to us several times, for no apparent reason, but when Ohm realizes that the dumbwaiter will only allow you to go down to the basement, he ingeniously sets the clockwork figure to trigger the dumbwaiter’s button. This provides a slim chance of escape as the supernatural threat advances, and the tension is nerve-shredding.
Adam Scott’s Ohm is one of the most unlikable characters I have seen in film in recent memory. He is abrasive, cynical, and often downright unpleasant—quick to insult and dismiss those around him. But as the film’s central antagonist, we have to root for him. Over the course of the film, we learn that he had a very traumatic childhood and lost both his parents at an early age. Hence, to a degree, you allow a certain amount of leeway, but he gradually begins to relate to other people, especially when he is trapped in the haunted room. By the film’s end, while he hasn’t been fully redeemed, he has become a better person than who he started as, and that’s something. Adam Scott plays Ohm with exceptional nuance, his performance anchoring the movie.
“Hokum” employs unsettling facial imagery and situational dread rather than cheap thrills, along with brilliant set design that builds genuine, tangible claustrophobia. And in this day and age of blood-soaked, overrated narratives, it makes for a welcome change.
Available on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray, and DVD August 11th
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