Movie Review: Hokum (2026)

hokum movie review — Adam Scott in *Hokum*. Photo: Neon

Hokum is a haunting tale of guilt, evil, despair, and forgiveness. Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is a bestselling American author who’s in Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes. His mother died long ago, but his father passed more recently.

Ohm is staying at the quaint Bilberry Woods Hotel located deep in rural Ireland. The folksy employees are excited to host a celebrity writer, but Ohm is nasty to them. He comes across as an arrogant jerk.

While visiting the hotel bar, Ohm hears stories about an evil witch who allegedly haunts the hotel. The author, of course, dismisses these tales as hokum.

Ohm strikes up a conversation with the pretty bartender, Fiona (Florence Ordesh). He tells that her that his mother was murdered when he was a kid. The perpetrator was too young to be put on trial, but Ohm declares that the boy should have been hanged.

I thought this conversation was eventually going to lead to Fiona and Ohm sleeping together, but this movie takes a darker track. Read no further if you don’t want any more plot details.

Fiona finds Ohm hanging from a rope in his hotel room. We learn that it was Ohm who killed his mom. He accidentally shot her while playing with his father’s gun. Ohm carries profound guilt and shame over his mother’s death. He has decided to give himself the punishment that he thinks he deserves.

This reframes his cruel behavior from earlier. It doesn’t justify his poor treatment of the staff, but it does explain his mental state.

Ohm wakes up in the hospital. He heads back the hotel, hoping to apologize to Fiona (and get her number). Ohm is shocked to learn that Fiona is missing. She disappeared shortly after he was hospitalized. The now empty hotel is closing up for the season and nobody has any idea where she is.

Ohm is determined to find her. He enlists the help of a dubious ally, Jerry (David Wilmot), an eccentric drug-addled vagrant whom the police believe is the prime suspect in Fiona’s disappearance.

Jerry is a classic red herring character. No experienced horror film watcher is going to believe for a second that this guy is the perpetrator, but he’s played with delicious glee by Wilmot.

I’m going to refrain from summarizing any more of this movie, but suffice to say that Ohm ends up trapped in a dark, eerie part of the hotel that’s teeming with terrifying sights and sounds. Ohm must overcome his deep-seated guilt and harrowing encounters with both human and supernatural evil if he hopes to make it out alive.

I have only one complaint about this movie. I found it difficult to believe that Ohm cared so much about finding Fiona. You’re telling me that this guy, who is portrayed as borderline sociopathic, is willing to potentially risk his life for a girl he barely knows? It’s a narrative leap that the script never convincingly justifies.

Florence Ordesh does a great job with the limited screentime she’s given. I liked Fiona and cared about her fate but I still found it difficult to grasp why Ohm was so passionate about finding her. He doesn’t seem like a guy who would fall head over heels for a lady after one conversation.

Other than that, Hokum is brilliant. I wasn’t sure director Damien McCarthy could top his previous film, Oddity, but Hokum surpasses it.

McCarthy is without a doubt one of the most promising and talented horror filmmakers working in the industry today. He’s still waiting for a major breakthrough in a mainstream commercial sense, but true horror fans and critics know that he’s one of the best.

McCarthy somehow finds a way to make that hoariest of genre tropes, the jump scare, effective. Instead of lazily telegraphing the moment that the ghost/witch/slasher/whatever is going to pop up, McCarthy creates exquisitely-timed scares that hit us when we least expect it.

Adam Scott delivers a terrific performance. Ohm is much different from his character (or should I say characters?) in Severance. He shows impressive range here. It’s not easy to play an asshole and still remain sympathetic, but Scott somehow achieves this.

Although the supernatural terror is plenty scary, the film’s most disturbing moments involve the cruelty that people inflict on one another. Another standout performance I neglected to mention earlier is Peter Coonan as Mal, the hotel’s desk clerk.

His portrayal reminded me of William H. Macy’s in Fargo. The seemingly unassuming and congenial Mal is hiding a dark secret that puts him in contact with forces that he can’t comprehend.

Hokum is especially recommended for fans of Stephen King. He had nothing to do with this film, but it’s clearly influenced by his work. Many standard King elements are here, including a writer protagonist, a creepy haunted setting in small town, and themes about guilt, grief, and redemption.

There’s also an unforgettable scene with a Pennywise-like character that will sear itself into your nightmares.