If you love a good haunted house story, “Hokum” is worth your time. It’s the new supernatural horror film from writer-director Damian McCarthy, and it’s easily one of the better horror movies to come out this year. It premiered at SXSW back in March and hit theaters in May, and since then it’s built a strong reputation among horror fans as a smart, atmospheric ghost story that respects the genre instead of just cashing in on it.
I went in expecting a fairly standard “haunted hotel” movie. What I got was something a little richer than that. It’s not a perfect film, and I’ll get into where it stumbles, but it’s the kind of horror movie that stays with you after the credits roll, which is more than I can say for a lot of what’s out there right now.
What’s It About
Adam Scott stars as Ohm Bauman, a successful horror novelist who is completely stuck. He’s trying to finish the last book in his popular “Conquistador” trilogy, and he cannot land the ending. We meet him alone at his writing desk, several drinks in, staring down a blank page and weighing whether to give his story an unnecessarily grim, bleak finale just to force it to a close. It’s not a flattering introduction. Ohm is talented, but he’s also kind of a mess, and a little bit of a jerk to the people around him.
On top of his writer’s block, Ohm is dealing with grief. His parents have passed away, and he’s been carrying their ashes around, unable to actually let go and lay them to rest. That unresolved grief is the emotional engine of the whole movie, even when the ghost story takes over.
Looking for both closure and maybe some inspiration, Ohm decides to travel to a remote inn in rural Ireland called the Bilberry Woods Hotel. His parents honeymooned there years ago, and he wants to scatter their ashes at the place where their story together began. It’s meant to be a quiet, healing trip.
Except the hotel has a reputation. Locals whisper about a witch said to haunt the honeymoon suite, the very room connected to his parents’ history. At first, Ohm treats it the way you’d expect a jaded horror writer to treat local folklore: as a fun bit of color, maybe material for his next book. He’s polite to the hotel staff but not particularly warm, and it’s clear he sees the whole trip through a slightly cynical, professional lens.
Then he starts seeing things. Small at first, easy to explain away. Then not so small. Disturbing visions creep into his stay, blurring the line between grief-driven hallucination and something actually supernatural. When a guest at the hotel suddenly and inexplicably disappears, the vacation-with-a-side-of-folklore turns into something much more dangerous, forcing Ohm to confront both the witch’s story and the darker, buried corners of his own past.
The Setting and the Hotel Staff
Part of what makes “Hokum” work is how lived-in the Bilberry Woods Hotel feels. This isn’t a generic spooky mansion with cobwebs for atmosphere. It comes with its own small ecosystem of characters: Cob, the owner; Mal, his son-in-law and the front desk clerk; Fergal, the groundskeeper; Fiona, the bartender; and Alby, the bellhop. Each of them seems to know more about the hotel’s history than they’re willing to say outright, and the film uses that slow drip of information well. You get the sense that everyone who works there has made some kind of peace, or at least an uneasy truce, with whatever is actually going on in that honeymoon suite.
This ensemble gives the movie a texture that a lot of haunted house films skip over. Instead of just “guy alone in scary house,” you get a small, believable community around Ohm, which makes the folklore feel like it has real weight and history behind it rather than being invented on the spot for the plot.
What Works
The atmosphere is the film’s biggest strength, by far. McCarthy builds a thick, creepy mood that sits with you for the entire runtime. This isn’t a movie stacked with cheap jump scares thrown at you back to back just to keep your heart rate up. It’s slower and more patient, letting dread build quietly in the background while you get pulled into the mystery of the hotel, the witch, and Ohm’s own unraveling grief.
Adam Scott is genuinely the highlight of the film. He plays Ohm as talented but authentically unlikable, a man who is difficult to be around even before any ghosts show up. That’s a hard balance for an actor to strike. You need the audience to care enough about this person to follow him through ninety minutes of dread, but the character is written, deliberately, as kind of a jerk. Scott threads that needle really well, and by the back half of the film, when Ohm’s defenses start cracking, you actually feel for him despite yourself.
The setting does a lot of heavy lifting too. An old Irish hotel with a folklore-heavy backstory is exactly the kind of location horror movies were built for, and the film uses it beautifully. Fog rolling over the grounds, dim hallways lit by single bulbs, old stone walls that seem to hold onto sound a little too long. It all feels authentic rather than like a horror movie set.
And when the scares actually land, they land hard. The film has earned a reputation for well-timed jump scares that work specifically because of how much patient groundwork gets laid before them. McCarthy isn’t just trying to startle you. He’s trying to make you dread the moment before it happens, which is a much harder trick to pull off and a much more satisfying one when it works.
The film also does something smart thematically. It ties the horror of the witch’s legend directly to Ohm’s inability to process grief and to finish his own story, professionally and personally. The haunted hotel isn’t just a spooky location, it’s a mirror for a man who can’t let go of the past, whether that’s his parents’ ashes or the ending of his novel. That layering gives the scares more meaning than they’d have on their own.
What Doesn’t Work
The pacing is uneven, and it’s the film’s clearest weakness. The middle stretch drags in a few places, particularly as the film spends time laying out the folklore and slowly introducing each hotel staff member. If you’re watching purely for constant scares, you might find yourself getting restless waiting for the next one to hit.
The plot can also get a little tangled by the final act. There’s a lot going on between the legend of the witch, Ohm’s grief over his parents, and his own buried past, and not every thread gets tied together as cleanly as it could. Some critics have pointed out that the story wavers between intentionally mysterious and just plain confusing in a few spots, and I’d agree the ending asks you to connect some dots on your own that the film could have made a little clearer.
There’s also the question of whether the slow burn approach will work for every viewer. This is not a movie built for casual background watching or for people who want nonstop tension. It rewards patience, and if you’re not in the mood for that kind of pacing, the middle section especially might test you.
The Performances
Beyond Scott, the supporting cast does solid, quiet work. David Wilmot, Peter Coonan, Florence Ordesh, Michael Patric, Will O’Connell, Brendan Conroy, and Austin Amelio round out the hotel staff and guests, and none of them overplay their hand. In a lesser film, the “locals who know more than they’re saying” trope can tip into camp, but here it stays grounded and believable, which helps sell the mounting dread.
How It Compares
If you’ve seen McCarthy’s earlier horror work, “Hokum” fits right into his wheelhouse: patient, folklore-driven, more interested in atmosphere and dread than gore. Fans of movies like “Oddity,” “The Shining,” or slower supernatural mysteries will find a lot to like here. It’s less interested in constant scares than in building a sustained, uncomfortable mood, and it trusts its audience to sit with that discomfort rather than constantly poking them with jump scares.
If you’re looking for something faster paced, gorier, or more action driven, this might not be the horror movie for you. But if “slow burn with a great lead performance and real atmosphere” sounds appealing, this delivers.
Final Verdict
“Hokum” is a spooky, atmospheric, and genuinely affectionate love letter to classic horror and haunted house storytelling. On the surface, it’s a fun haunted hotel movie. Underneath that, it’s a thoughtful character study about grief, unfinished stories, and the things we refuse to let go of. The pacing issues and slightly tangled plot keep it from being a total knockout, but the atmosphere, the setting, and Adam Scott’s performance make it one of the standout horror releases of the year.
It’s a great pick for a Halloween movie night if you want something with more atmosphere than gore, and something that will actually stick with you the next day instead of fading the second the credits roll.
Runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes Rated: R Genre: Supernatural Horror, Folk Horror, Mystery Director: Damian McCarthy Starring: Adam Scott, David Wilmot, Peter Coonan, Florence Ordesh, Michael Patric, Will O’Connell, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio Where to watch: Available to rent or buy on digital platforms
Have you seen Hokum? Let me know what you thought of the ending in the comments below. Did the witch’s story land for you, or did the final act lose you along the way?
RATING: 4/5