‘Hokum’ is an Irish Horror Folktale Built on Mystery, Guilt and Suspense
In Hokum, Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy builds a terrifyingly suspenseful atmosphere in a hotel in rural Ireland. McCarthy is no stranger to horror, writing and directing other horror films such as Caveat (2020) and Oddity (2024). In this new film, Adam Scott stars as Ohm Bauman, an author haunted by the trauma of his past and seeking closure. Today’s horror landscape can feel saturated with cheap jump scares and stories that lack depth. Hokum sets itself apart by building an immersive setting to weave three stories together: a man’s guilt, a mysterious disappearance and an allegedly haunted hotel.
The film opens with Bauman writing an incredibly bleak epilogue to a novel, when he is haunted by an apparition of his mother. Frightened, he begins to look through his parents’ belongings, searching for a solution. Along with his parents’ ashes, he finds a picture of them on their honeymoon at the Bilberry Woods Hotel in rural Ireland and decides to travel there to spread their ashes.
After arriving at the hotel, several things become clear. First, Bauman is cruel and detached, showing his dismissive arrogance to everyone he encounters. Second, the honeymoon suite that Bauman’s parents stayed in is now locked shut. The rumor around the hotel is that the owner caught a witch in there and he is adamant about keeping the suite locked so that it cannot escape. The final revelation about Bauman is that his mother died from a gunshot wound, and there seems to be much left unsaid by Bauman about the circumstances of his mother’s mysterious death.
