Damian McCarthy is the new king of horror. The Irish filmmaker has wowed audiences before with mind-bending twists A Caveat in 2020. Then it came Odditytraditional Irish subversion and horror focused on the horror scene a wooden man. Now, he’s back with the Adam Scott-fronted Hokum, which is his best and scariest movie yet.
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Look, I don’t say that lightly. I watch a lot of horror movies. Even outside of my job, I’m looking for weird, weird, scary as hell. And even though I loved you A Caveat with all its surreal spookiness and Oddity with its gruesome imagery and sinister twists, I wasn’t ready for it Hokum. Of course, I called it my own most anticipated movies of 2026. But I could not predict from HokumThe first picture of Scott, crouched in a wooden box, or even trailer what was expected. As I play in my title, this movie scared me so much, consistently, that I screamed out loud at the end.
And I can’t wait to see it again.
What Hokum about?
Written and directed by Damian McCarthy, Hokum centers on Ohm Bauman (Scott), an American writer haunted by his past. Struggling to complete his famous book series, The Conquistador Trilogy, he takes a trip to Ireland, where his parents got married long ago. There, he will sprinkle their ashes. But before he can find peace or leave the towering hotel with a sinister history, he is drawn into the mystery of a missing woman and the history of a witch said to be haunting the honeymoon suite.
Adam Scott is a real rat Hokum, and thank God.
Scott is one of America’s most versatile actors. Opened Parks and Recreation, he was a lover who deserved to be crushed. Opened Party Down, he was a funny anti-hero. Step Brothers again Nice place gave him some ridiculously brutal bros to play with, while The Krampus again A monkey he played abandoned fathers. In a sad sight The Cruel Kindhe was a troubled and sexy lover. In a sci-fi series Separationhe entertains the audience as a tortured Lumon worker whose understanding of separation leaves him torn between impossible choices. But in Hokumhe is a mess to all who cross his path. And it’s fun to see.
Hotel staff are usually eager to please. Some even sneak up on him when they realize it’s him i Oh Bauman. The preening manager (Peter Coonan) gets ridiculed for asking for an autograph. The kind bartender (Florence Ordesh) gets angry for making small talk. bellhop (Oddity fans, IYKYK) named Alby (Will O’Connell), who dreams of becoming a writer himself, is consumed by the attention of his idol. Ohm has harsh words for the hotel owner (Brendan Conroy), who – to be honest – scares the little kids with a tale of a local witch who kidnaps guests.
The only person Ohm has patience for is a strange man in the woods named Jerry (David Wilmot), who takes care of wild goats, drinks their milk from magic mushrooms, and runs away for a troubling reason. Their connection is confusing but compelling, especially as Jerry pushes Ohm through a series of dangerous decisions in search of an impossible truth.
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It’s a twisted pleasure to watch Scott sneer and sneer, in part because it’s dark to see this protagonist flaunt his public good. But more than that, his bad behavior gives horror fans a warning: Ohm will pay for being a bad American, dragging the locals and their story, because as we all know from traditional horror movies like The Wicker Mansuch an attitude often leads to disaster. However, in addition, Hokum he paints a shocking story of healing, exploring not only why Ohm is such a pain, but also a terrifying path that will force him to reexamine his cruel ways. Scott is well suited for such a role. Firstly, his ability to slide from one form to another means that he just fits wherever he is positioned. So, whether you’re looking down on an angry brother, a deadly toy, or even a soul-splitting organization, it feels like of course, this will happen to this boy. Scott has such a knack for locking down the tone on the jump that he puts any truth into it. Speaking of jumping….
The horror inside Hokum I cried, jumping, and wanting to close my eyes.
Credit: NEON
Jump scares often get a bad rap because they can be considered cheap. McCarthy, however, is a master at building tension and anticipation, twisting his audience into a knot of dread, until we burst into a gasp or jump. Within the first five minutes Hokum, putting on an air as if he was stalking Ohm. And its initial shock had me screaming at the SXSW premiere of Hokum so hard that I felt my ribs shaking.
McCarthy offers this immediate fear not only as a thrill to lure the audience into his ghost-filled tale, but also as a misunderstanding to come. After this, Hokum it goes from the usual “surprise! There’s something behind you” horror that releases tension, with more horror to come. know something is there, you just can’t see it… yet.
McCarthy sets the witch’s frame in a haunted honeymoon suite, then lets us sit in a bolted gate that’s supposed to keep children out. But there is a ringing in the darkness beyond the gate. So, naturally, someone will reach for an arm with a lighter, trying to understand what lies in the shadows. Rather than panic immediately, McCarthy waits. The arm probes the darkness, the hand is human and exposed to anything invisible. The flame burns, playing with our expectations of what it might reveal. And Makhathini is waiting.
I felt a sob tickle in my chest. My fingers pulled my notebook up to my nose. I gritted my teeth and refused to close my eyes, even though I desperately wanted to. Then comes the reveal. In short, it’s simple, but absolutely terrifying. A scream escaped me again, this time tearing the fingers that were holding my mouth.
Again and again, McCarthy builds on this tension with a production design of secret decay. The colors of the hotel are wood, decay, and beaten flesh. They love it A Caveat again Oddity it will ring in anticipation of a familiar icon, such as a small service bell or a repeating rabbit motif. These three films, all set in the same dramatic setting, share a haunting human frame, in which a rational man is lost in a world of superstition and dark faith that he cannot understand, let alone control. Yet McCarthy does not create a concrete horror universe. Instead, these talismans suggest a fluid relationship between horror and myth. And it’s subtly entertaining with its wild twists, ferocious monsters, and artfully paced scares.
At the climax of the film, when Ohm must not only face his fear but also face a vicious enemy, I wrote only one note in my book: “I will throw.” Thankfully, I was able to keep the tension simmering in my gut. But this experience brought back the same SXSW premiere, when I saw Ari Aster’s Genetics first of all. I screamed, gasped, and even gasped as his religious belief grabbed me by the throat. I didn’t sleep that night until the sun came up. Because Hokum, I managed to sleep, or at least passed out from the exhaustion of the festivities. But I did so with the nagging knowledge that if something came to me in the dark, I would no longer have a voice – let alone a scream – to call for help. And that’s something new, even for horror fans who can’t be scared by my genius.
Hokum awesome art that’s so scary. Love A Caveat again Odd, Hokum twisted, scary, and darkly funny. McCarthy has built on his ability to weave strange tales and compelling characters into a claustrophobic setting to deliver a horror thriller that brims with ambition as much as he does star power. It’s nerve-wracking, bone-rattling, scream-inducingly good-time, and an absolute blast to see in a theater. Don’t miss it.
Hokum reviewed at the SXSW film festival. Hokum opens in theaters May 1.
