Atmospheric and tragic, McCarthy’s follow-up to Oddity set in a quirky Irish inn channels vibes from The Shining in a story about the demons that haunt a prolific writer far from home.
HOKUM (2026)
★★★ & 1/2 ★ OF ★★★★★ stars
I wasn’t sure what to expect from HOKUM, the followup to Oddity from writer/director Damien McCarthy, The film, which we caught at the Overlook Film Festival as the closing night feature and opens in wide release from NEON on May 1st, is a haunted house affair on the surface. Adam Scotts stars as the lead, a writer named Ohm Bauman, known for writing a series of adventure novels that he is struggling to bring to finish. He’s a guy who is very haunted by his own personal demons involving his parents, especially his mother. As he struggles with his writing, he decides to take a trip to Ireland to an inn where his parents spent their honeymoon, the last place he knew them to be happy based on a photo he finds, to spread their ashes. As it stands, Ohm is also an angry and bitter person and the charm of the quirky people he meets at the inn do not provide a salve for his personality. He meets a bellboy named Alby (Will O’Connell) who is a superfan of Ohm’s writing, Ohm berates his station in life and burns his hand with a hot spoon to tell him he needs thicker skin to survive as a writer. The bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh) tries to strike up a camaraderie with Ohm, but even as he belittles her, she still worries enough about him to check on him in his room later when he attempts to kill himself after spreading his parents’ ashes. When Ohm wakes up, he wants to thank Fiona, but is informed by the hotel’s manager Mal (Peter Coonan) that she is missing since the night Ohm tried to kill himself. Ohm gets wrapped up in the idea of finding her, after a local named Jerry (David Wilmot) posits that something bad may have happened, especially since the inn has many quirks of its own, including a barred off honeymoon suite. Ohm sets out to find Fiona, only to eventually find himself trapped in the honeymoon suite where he encounters his demons, both figurative and literal as he tries to get out and find justice for Fiona.
There’s a lot going on with Hokum and I haven’t really touched on the twists since thats the real draw of the film is where McCarthy steers his doombuggies toward in this Haunted Mansion. In some way, the movie is reminiscent of that ride, since you’re getting on board for one thing and encournter lots of unexpected twists and ghosts and hauntings along the way. Scvott’s Ohm is a complicated character, he’s a misanthrope but you find he has reasons for being the way he uis, tragic ones that befit the environment he finds himself in at this Irish inn. He’s haunted by his past, by actions he can’t change, and maybe he says finding Fiona as something of a make good since she saved the life he didn’t think was worth saving in his own. The honeymoon suite is a character in its own, with a dumb waiter elevator that Ohm has to figure out like a puzzle in a Resident Evil game and that just unlocks even more questions of whether escape is even possible and an add supernatural element that provides jumpscares and some really horror moments. In many ways, Hokum largely works because its a chamber piece. It reminds you of The Shining, though the stakes are smaller, but the atmosphere is creepy and engaging which draws you in. There are times when I question whether Scott was the right lead for this, since at times it is hard to separate him from his roles in other comedies and TV series whuch can make it a little difficult to get invested when the other characters feel very lived in and real. But the quality of the story and atmospheric production design and cinematography really get you in there. The arc for the Ohm character also feels earned and the way its reflected in how the end of his in-film novel ends I also enjoyed tremedously.
Overall, Hokum is a solid haunted house film, one that I expected to be a bit darker and quirkier, but ultimately one I did enjoy. It hits theaters on May 1st from NEON.
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VIDEO REVIEW