Movies
‘Hokum’ Review – ‘Oddity’ Director’s Latest Irish Folkloric Horror is Nightmare Fuel
The haunted bell that summoned a bellhop ghost in the closing moments of Oddity turned out to be a prelude for writer/director Damian McCarthy’s Hokum, his most polished and unnerving horror movie yet. A quaint Irish hotel with a deeply haunted history awaits an American writer in the horror filmmaker’s third outing, continuing his streak for folkloric tales of supernatural karma and spine-tingling terror with a dark sense of humor.
Adam Scott stars as Ohm Bauman, a successful author struggling to conclude his conquistador book series that seems destined to end in bleakness. That’s likely because Ohm is very much haunted by the loss of his parents, and so he travels to the hotel where they honeymooned for a sense of closure. Ohm isn’t a very nice guy, though, and alienates much of Billberry Woods Hotel’s staff.
He does manage to make two friends in bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh) and forest dweller Jerry (David Wilmot), both of whom warn him of the witch haunting the closed-off Honeymoon Suite. When Fiona goes missing, Ohm’s attempts to find her and the truth plunge him into an existential nightmare straight out of a twisted fairy tale.
Hokum‘s setting and acerbic author call Stephen King to mind, 1408 and The Shining specifically, in that the supernatural causes its protagonist to confront their issues in a baptism by unholy fire. While that means that McCarthy places higher emphasis on Ohm’s journey than the witchy folklore, the filmmaker firmly marches to his own drum with a unique and haunted vision.
While Ohm’s introduction brings an effective scare, Hokum bides its time building anticipation and mystery. That’s not to say it’s light on scares; trust that McCarthy will scare you silly here. But dread and atmosphere take precedence over a constant barrage of jump scares; though there are plenty of those, too. One of McCarthy’s biggest strengths is his ability to conjure up chills from seemingly mundane spaces or objects, and with such imagination.
There’s a distinct look to a Damian McCarthy horror movie. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Production designer Til Frohlich ensures the hotel, and the Honeymoon Suite in particular, is as tactile and immersive as it is full of personality. When Ohm eventually finds his way in, you can practically smell the musk and mildew.
Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for a pleasant surprise, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man, not unlike his fictional conquistador bookending this film, so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect.
Damian McCarthy excels at defying expectations, also reflected in the way that every supporting player surprises: first impressions are very deceptive here. It’s also reflected in Hokum‘s narrative structure. McCarthy is unhurried in doling out details and uninterested in handholding. The Irish, at least in Hokum, simply accept the existence of folkloric entities like the witch. How she got there isn’t as important as the fact that she’s there and for good. Those hoping for an expansion of lore will likely come away disappointed, but that’s not what’s important to this story.
Hokum so thoroughly invests you in Ohm’s off-kilter quest, one that keeps raising new intrigues and questions, and in a way that’s not easily predicted. The full scope of terror takes a while to arrive for the sake of building anticipation, such nail-biting anticipation that explodes in a folkloric freakout, yet it still holds you firmly in its grip.
McCarthy dangles close to the precipice of bleakness, but ultimately rewards with a magical story about storytelling and the ability to heal. Hokum just also happens to be really freaking scary. But, as Jerry explains to Ohm, you have to be open to it.
Hokum premiered at SXSW and releases in theaters on May 1.
Editor’s Note: This SXSW review was originally published on March 15, 2026.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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