Dir. Damian McCarthy, US, 2026, 107 mins
Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric
Review by Colin Dibben
Uptight, cynical writer Ohm (Scott) arrives at the rural Irish hotel where his parents honeymooned, to sprinkle their ashes and get over his own writer’s block.
The hotel is old fashioned and creepy and so are some of the staff. The honeymoon suite has been unused for years and is kept locked. The aging hotel owner claims to have trapped a witch within.
When Fiona (Ordesh), one of the friendlier staff, disappears, Ohm teams up with a local homeless guy (Wilmot) to break into the honeymoon suite.
Hokum is much more like writer-director Damian McCarthy’s quirky and brilliant 2020 debut feature Caveat – still on streaming, I think – than the slightly obvious Oddity from 2024. This is a supernatural film that fizzes emotionally and intellectually in all directions, while remaining distinctly materialist in its approach to the otherworldly.
For all the spooky teases and short, sharp shocks, the camera spends a lot of time focusing on almost fetishised, ‘pre-loved’ objects in dusty old rooms. In some instances, it is these rusting mechanical objects that help Ohm uncover the murderous machinations at play in the hotel.
Adam Scott’s prissy lead character adds nicely to proceedings, even if initially he feels like an unnecessary US import. Ohm is uptight and obnoxiously rational, as well as being plain obnoxious. His supercilious perspective personifies the film’s own detached tone, which itself makes the final embracing of the supernatural perfect or a bit of a letdown, depending on your personal preferences regarding the preternatural.
There is perhaps too much going on here with regard to sub-plots and other narrative add-ons. Did we really need a back story for Ohm’s cuntishness? And how credible is the traumatic maternal death that McCarthy serves up? But, in general, McCarthy manages to keep it all together and these slightly garrulous tidbits add to the ironic tone of the film.
Hokum is out in cinemas on 1 May 2026.
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