Hokum follows in the footsteps of other horror movies released recently that are what we like to call “slow burns.”
That subgenre usually starts slow and brings our characters into another world or brings an item from another world into ours. Hokum comes from writer/director Damian McCarthy, who also directed Oddity, another slow burn. This film tells the story of Ohm Bauman (played by Adam Scott), a successful author, who’s trying to finish his big trilogy. He ends up going to Ireland to stay at the same hotel his parents had their honeymoon at, and scatter their ashes. Once at the hotel, a bit of a strange energy meets him, particularly from its owner Cob (played by Brendan Conroy) and his son-in-law, Mal (played by Peter Coonan).
Ohm is not a nice guy, I’ll start off there. He’s antagonistic towards the staff of the hotel. Ohm is only really nice to the homeless guy in the area, Jerry (played by David Wilmot). He’s also nice to a bartender and staff member at the hotel, Fiona (played by Florence Ordesh). Where Hokum gets interesting is when it flips after this opening section. There are two shocking moments that fundamentally change the path of the story here. From there, it becomes more of a murder mystery mixed with folk horror and of course, a witch.
Hokum Really Is What You Want It To Be
But that’s a generalization of the power that Hokum holds. For people who want just scares, it’s a frightening movie. There are plenty of tense moments where even I was holding my hands over my eyes. McCarthy has a hold on building tension and leaving plenty of empty space in the frame where you’re expecting something to show up and scare the daylights out of you. But for those of you looking for a deeper, richer mystery and lore, Hokum provides that as well. The lore here is not just for the witch, Irish folklore, or the hotel, either. Ohm’s story of how and why he is, is fascinating, and as it develops, ended up as the most emotional part of the movie.
There really are two halves of Hokum and one half is before we get into the Honeymoon Suite and the other is after. Once we’re in the suite, its like we entered a screwed-up fairy tale that might or might not be the hallucinations or delusions of Ohm and whoever else.
The characters of the film are all fairly well-rounded with the interactions between Ohm and the staff in the beginning of the movie being a particular highlight. He’s gruff and mean, and for the most part, they don’t really deal with his attitude. Some moments of levity come with Alby (played by Will O’Connell), a bellhop at the hotel who recognizes Ohm. It’s also here that Ohm gets to his lowest point in the film, which leads to one of the more shocking moments. At the midpoint of the film, those relationships are filled with anxiety and questions about who murdered whom.
A Few Small Gripes
My only real gripes with the film are the frame of the story and the development of Ohm in the finale. It seems like it wraps up a little too perfectly, and not in a strange, “could this be real or unreal” way. Outside of that, Hokum was a deeply emotional experience. Sure, it’s terrifying, and that’ll get butts in the seats, but for the first time in a long time, I shed tears of emotional release watching Hokum. It wasn’t even in the epilogue of the film, it was near the end, but a moment that’s tucked in the film about forgiveness and letting go of the past is so powerful, it drove me to tears.
The use of light and how that can trick us into a false sense of security is also tantamount in Hokum. There’s plenty of dark corridors that create a tense sensation that runs through the film. But at the end of it all, Hokum is a truly special horror film that I’ll surely be rewatching again and again. The mystery, the folklore, the performances, the emotion, all of it combine together for an exquisite horror experience.
Hokum releases in theaters on May 1st, 2026.
For more Reviews, make sure to check back to That Hollywood Show.
Reviews