Irish Folklore Finds a New Host

Read Time:6 Minute, 52 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Hokum
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Genre: Horror, Thriller
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director(s): Damian McCarthy
Writer(s): Damian McCarthy
Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio
Where to Watch: available August 11, 2026, pre-order your copy here: www.moviesunlimited.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: A service bell rings from a room sealed for years, turning an ordinary moment in the hotel into a warning. In HOKUM, Damian McCarthy gives the Bilberry Woods Hotel an unnerving awareness of its guests, making its corridors feel like you’re being watched, and every locked door suggests that Ohm Bauman has already wandered closer than he realizes.

Ohm arrives in rural Ireland with his parents’ ashes, an unfinished epilogue, and enough contempt to make nearly every conversation uncomfortable. He’s a successful horror novelist who has spent too long believing that intelligence excuses cruelty. The trip is supposed to give him closure, though he appears more interested in escaping obligations than confronting grief. He dismisses local stories, insults people who try to help him, and carries himself like the hotel should be grateful for his presence.

Adam Scott never asks the audience to like him. His performance allows Ohm’s arrogance to remain abrasive even after the reasons behind it begin to surface. Scott has always been good at showing irritation through tiny choices, and here a tightened jaw or impatient glance says as much as the dialogue. The grief underneath Ohm’s hostility matters, though it doesn’t erase the damage he causes. That distinction gives the character more weight than a standard skeptic waiting to be proven wrong.

Florence Ordesh brings a stability to Fiona, the hotel bartender who gets closer to Ohm than anyone else manages. Their scenes don’t force anything where it doesn’t belong. Fiona recognizes the hurt under his behavior while refusing to act impressed by him. Her disappearance gives the mystery, but her presence beforehand is just as important. She feels like a person rather than a clue placed into Ohm’s path.

The rest of the hotel staff deepen the suspicion without turning into a row of obvious red herrings. Peter Coonan keeps Mal guarded enough to invite distrust, David Wilmot gives Jerry a strange mixture of humor and sadness, and Brendan Conroy makes Cob’s stories sound equally suited to frightening children or warning adults. Jerry could have become eccentric, especially once his fondness for mushroom-laced drinks enters the picture. Wilmot instead makes him unpredictable in a more human way. His rambling behavior can be funny, but there’s pain behind it that the film never treats as a punchline.

The hallways aren’t impossibly elaborate, and the rooms don’t need to transform into dream spaces to become threatening. Their ordinary dimensions make the fear more impactful. A narrow shaft, a half-open door, or an empty stretch behind Ohm can hold your attention because the camera gives viewers enough time to inspect the frame. That waiting becomes dangerous. By the time something moves, the mind has already invented several possibilities.

Floorboards, bells, metal, distant voices, and sudden pockets of silence keep the building active even when Ohm appears to be alone. Joseph Bishara’s score pushes hard at times, but it works more as an ambiance for the film than the actual trigger. Several scares land because McCarthy has established where everything should be, then quietly introduces something that doesn’t belong.

HOKUM isn’t shy about using recognizable horror expectations. There’s a haunted hotel, a sealed room, an old witch, a hostile skeptic, disturbing reflections, and a local population that knows more than it says. McCarthy’s control keeps those pieces from feeling stolen from elsewhere. The folklore surrounding the witch, particularly the images of chains and a guided descent into the underworld, gives the threat a specific moral shape. This presence doesn’t simply attack whoever happens to enter the wrong room. It appears connected to guilt, punishment, and the stories people tell when direct truth has become too painful.

Ohm’s profession also gives the film room to question who gets to control a story. He’s built a career turning fear into entertainment, but he becomes irritated whenever someone else’s account challenges his version of reality. Even his unfinished novel reflects that struggle. The desert scenes involving his fictional Conquistador seem detached from the hotel at first, and the connection takes longer than necessary to settle into place. Once it does, the material reveals how determined Ohm has been to write around his own life instead of looking directly at it.

Ohm treats folklore as hokum because disbelief allows him to remain superior to everyone around him. The movie doesn’t argue that every legend should be accepted without question. It’s more interested in the arrogance of refusing to listen, especially when stories preserve truths that a community has chosen not to state plainly. That idea runs through the supernatural material and the more ordinary ugliness hiding inside the hotel. The first half asks for patience, and viewers waiting for constant escalation may understand why the response has been divided. McCarthy spends considerable time letting Ohm wander, offend people, and absorb fragments of information. That approach pays off once the hotel empties and the investigation moves behind its closed doors. A long section built around Ohm and Jerry entering the building after hours is tightly controlled and genuinely frightening. The movie stops feeling like a collection of ominous hints and becomes a sustained trap.

Personal trauma, criminal behavior, supernatural judgment, hallucination, and the mechanics of escape begin competing for room. A few explanations reduce mysteries that were more disturbing when they remained incomplete, while the witch is more frightening as a suggestion than as a fully visible figure. The uncertainty surrounding what Ohm sees adds another layer, though it can also feel like protection against committing to one answer.

Those weaknesses don’t undo any of the experience. McCarthy knows how to create fear from placement, timing, and the expectation that something may be standing just beyond the light. He also understands that an unpleasant lead can remain worth following when the film takes his choices seriously. Ohm isn’t purified by suffering, and his grief doesn’t become a convenient excuse. Any movement toward decency has to begin with recognizing the people he failed to see.

McCarthy continues to expand his scale without losing the handmade unease that made his earlier films memorable. HOKUM has more characters, a wider emotional reach, and a messier experience, but its most effective moments remain beautifully simple. Someone hears a noise. A door that should stay closed opens. A man who writes about monsters realizes he may have misunderstood where monsters come from. Long after the explanations have been sorted, that impossible bell keeps ringing.

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[photo courtesy of MOVIES UNLIMITED, ALLIANCE HOME ENTERTAINMENT, NEON]

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