The Reel Review
A novelist visits a hotel in rural Ireland to spread his late parents’ ashes where they had honeymooned decades earlier only to find himself drawn into a deadly, mysterious world of witchcraft, Irish folklore and unresolved personal trauma. Adam Scott stars in this horror/mystery.
With themes similar to his prior films, writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity, Caveat) again does an impressive job plotting out his intricate horror puzzle in a way that builds a sense of dread rather than relying on tired tropes and cheap jump scares. Scott’s character, we gradually learn, experienced a significant childhood trauma which has shaped his entire life and made him a profoundly unhappy, lonely, loathsome individual – something Scott nails perfectly.
The biggest problem with Hokum is that its pacing at times is a bit sluggish and the ending is a bit ho hum (see what we did there?) but for those with the ability to appreciate subtlety and excellent cinematography, Hokum is a well-executed, effective creeper of a film.
REEL FACTS
• Adam Scott filmed alone in a room for almost three weeks to capture the isolation of his character.
• The hotel bell at the start of the film is the same prop used in Damian McCarthy’s 2024 horror/thriller Oddity.
• Damian McCarthy’s disturbing looking rabbit people in his film is a recurring motif of creepy rabbits in his films that stems from his childhood fear of the rabbits in the 1978 animated film Watership Down.
Video & Photo
