INITIAL THOUGHTS
It isn’t everyday you have a horror film that finds a way to blend folklore, trauma, and 1408 hotel haunting styles all into one. HOKUM finds a way to do that with a fairly simple story, focusing on telegraphed scares that will still make you jump and Scary imagery throughout. This movie I was very happy to walk out of and say that there are genuinely scary jump scares in it. Damian McCarthy does a great job with throwing a bunch of scare setups at you, and still finding a way to catch you with something scary that you are expecting but the concept of it being something scary to see doesn’t go away. Adam Scott also did a great job as the asshole writer, felt like a main character in a survival horror game unlocking clues and tools throughout the arc of a horror video game, which was really cool to see and follow on screen. This is my favorite of Damian McCarthy’s films, very close race with this and Oddity.
ADAM SCOTT LEADING THE ENSEMBLE
Adam Scott did a really good job as the lead here, playing a disgruntled writer that felt like he was forced to be at the hotel even though he went on his own will. It took me a bit to get past seeing him as the guy I came to love in Parks and Rec, but once that wore off I really bought into him and him trying to solve the various puzzles of this film. Every tense moment he was in you felt like you were exactly in his shoes in that moment, from his expressions and also credit to the director for helping us feel along with him. This movie has a limited casts, so it is mainly driven by his interactions with those like Fiona, Alby, and Jerry to help us move the story along. That is another indicator of a great horror film, doing a lot with minimal character interaction. I hope Adam Scott gets more lead roles in horror or thriller films after this.
WHEN THE SCARES STARTED, THEY DIDN’T STOP
This movie had 3-4 sequences that genuinely shook me to jump in my seat. It wasn’t an insane scare or anything that sticks with you like the head scene in Hereditary, but it is enough to put you on edge anytime the sound drops and you see Ohm investigating the hotel. The scares are somewhat telegraphed I’d say, but in my opinion it didn’t make me less effective when the jump scare did smack you in the face. The Jack the Donkey scare was so tense and you knew it was coming and it still walked you down and scared the shit out of me. Plenty of random appearing scares of his mom will get you too when you least expect it. Jack the Donkey was a scarier image than the witch, but man the witch had some terrifying parts. The chase up the elevator for one is stuff made from nightmares. Becoming a hide and seek game with her while Ohm retreats really had me freaked the fuck out. It took some time for the true scares to get going, but HOKUM unlike other recent horrors like Undertone, actually put scares together that will have you scared to look around a dark corner or go take a piss at night.
IRISH FOLKLORE, FAMILY TRAUMA, AND HUMAN MORALS
The reason horror is the fucking best genre of all time, you can have a movie like this that at the base is an Irish folklore story about a witch haunting a hotel suite, but the main character dealing with past childhood and family trauma is what guides him to the spooky location and to push forward to prevail in the midst of all the scares. I also really enjoyed that they kept a cruel and malicious tone between the human characters. Like what happens to Fiona is a direct result of human conflict, and ultimately Ohm is locked up in the suite because of a decision by Mal to lock him up there and leave him for the season closure. Thankfully, the human aspect of ethical code and morals also saves the day for so many in this film. Fiona’s gut and intuition to check on Ohm saved his life. She didn’t have to, she just at the root is a good person. The same thing that led Jerry to return and ultimately save Ohm at the end. It’s that humanism that really elevates this film beyond the scares and folklore that builds the base of this horror film I believe will be remembered as a cult classic when the time comes.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I really loved this film. I was teetering between a 4 and a 4.5 out of 5 stars for my Letterboxd, and I ultimately landed on a 4 because of comparison metrics. I think it’s a very good film, but I have Sinner a 4.5/5 and I believe this is not to that level, although very good. The atmosphere is great, Damian McCarthy stays in his lane of how he likes to direct and create stories and it’s so cool to see a studio allow him to create his own vision on screen after films like Caveat and Oddity were so well received by hardcore horror fans. Those are not films a general moviegoer may enjoy, but I do believe Hokum crosses over to the side of a horror film that keeps his identity he had envisioned while also being able to appeal to the general moviegoer. I can’t wait to throw this movie on at night at my house with a glass of bourbon on ice and the lights off on a rewatch.
The Cinema Speakeasy Theatre Room 
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