HOKUM : Tuesday 12th May 2026.

I saw the M Rated 'HOKUM' earlier this week, and this Irish, UAE and US Co-produced supernatural horror film is Written and Directed by Damian McCarthy, in his third feature film making outing following 'Caveat' in 2020 and 'Oddity' in 2024. The film Premiered at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in mid-March this year, was released Stateside and here in Australia the week ending 1st May, has received generally positive critical reviews, and has so far grossed US$18M from a production budget of US$5M.

The film opens with reasonably successful novelist Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) struggling to write the Epilogue of his 'Conquistador' trilogy. After experiencing a brief vision of the ghost of his mother at home, Ohm decides to visit The Bilberry Woods Hotel in rural Ireland, where his parents had honeymooned, to lay their ashes finally to rest. Upon arrival, he is greeted by the hotel staff - owner Cob (Brendan Conroy), his son-in-law and front desk clerk Mal (Peter Coonan), groundskeeper Fergal (Michael Patric), bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh) and bellhop Alby (Will O'Connell). 

While checking in for his week long stay, Ohm overhears Cob tell two children the story of a local witch who kidnaps children, clasps their hands in shackles and leads them in chains on a tour through the underworld, where they are clawed at by the souls who live there. Ohm is abrasive and dismissive toward the staff, but strikes up a friendlier rapport with Fiona after she identifies the location of a photo his mother took, standing next to a redwood tree. While spreading his parents' ashes - his mothers which he places thoughtfully around the roots of the tree, and his fathers which he empties out randomly next to the same tree, he meets and bonds with Jerry (David Wilmot), a local living in his van who frequently consumes milk laced with the ground up powder of magic mushrooms. He offers Ohm some of his homemade 'moonshine', which he gratefully knocks back a few sips before returning the bottle and going on his way.

Later that night in the bar while downing a couple of glasses of whisky, Fiona and Alby tell Ohm that the honeymoon suite is locked off, has been for many years and is supposedly haunted by a witch that Cob had trapped inside. Ohm dismisses this as 'hokum'. After belittling Alby's dreams of a writing career, Ohm returns to his room. Concerned, and having left his voice recorder and the photo of his mother at the bar, Fiona goes to check on Ohm and has Alby unlock his door. As she walks in to his room and switches on the light Fiona discovers he has hanged himself. Ohm comes round in hospital, alive thanks to Fiona's intervention. When he returns to the hotel, Mal informs him that Fiona has been missing since the hotel's Halloween party and Jerry is the #1 suspect for both Fiona's disappearance and the murder of his wife some years prior. The hotel is in final preparations to close for the winter season, and so Ohm collects his luggage and leaves.

However, Ohm pulls up a short distance away, and confronts Jerry at his van, who claims to have seen Fiona's ghost in the hotel directing him to the honeymoon suite. Ohm doesn't believe Jerry's story but agrees to check the suite with him. Jerry confesses to killing his wife, but says it was a mercy killing due to her terminal illness. With the hotel now closed for the season, Ohm and Jerry break in to investigate, once all staff and their vehicles have left, and undercover of darkness. 

Fergal remained back at the hotel however, and knocks Jerry unconscious, cable ties his hands together and bundles him into the back of his van before driving him to the Gardai (the national Police and Security Service of the Republic of Ireland). Fergal doesn't see Ohm who has snuck out of sight when Fergal appears. Ohm sneaks into the honeymoon suite, where he is haunted by supernatural visions of his mother and memories of shooting her dead by accident with his father's gun as a child. Ohm falls asleep on the honeymoon bed and is abruptly woken by Mal, who pleads with Ohm that they must return back downstairs and out of the honeymoon suite. 

Ohm inspects a dumbwaiter, discovering Fiona's corpse inside, dressed in her Halloween bunny outfit. Mal locks Ohm in the suite and flees the hotel. Ohm finds his tape recorder on Fiona and learns from her voice recordings that she was pregnant with Mal's baby, and that Mal drugged her and locked her in the suite to prevent his family finding out.

Jerry comes round in Fergal's van and is able to cut through the cable ties with a pocket knife, and jumps out of van's rear doors and escapes to the hotel. The hauntings intensify as Ohm struggles to find a way out. Spotting a fire escape on a map of the basement, Ohm removes Fiona's body to a nearby chair and descends via the dumbwaiter. He reaches the fire escape but finds it bricked up. Hearing eerily ghost like noises following him he quickly rushes back to the dumbwaiter and ascends to whence he came from. The Witch (Sioux Carroll) though follows him, enters the room but he fends her off with a circle of chalk he draws around the honeymoon bed. He falls asleep and wakes up the next morning with no sign of the Witch. A short time later Mal arrives at the hotel to dispose of Ohm and is surprised to find a badly injured Jerry from his fall out of the van. Ohm manages to ring the suite bell, alerting Jerry to his presence. Ohm starts a fire in the suite by covering an electric plug in heater with a thick blanket. Meanwhile, Mal shoots Jerry dead with Fergal's crossbow, as Jerry attempts to break into the suite to release Ohm. 

Ohm flees into the basement again, and is pursued by Mal. Ohm draws another chalk circle to protect himself in the narrow basement corridor, but not before being shackled and chained himself. Mal is also confronted by the witch, who shackles and chains his hands and leads him to the underworld. Ohm makes peace with his mother's ghost and removes his own chains before escaping back up the dumbwaiter and out of the honeymoon suite. As the hotel burns, Ohm is saved by Fergal after he hears Fiona's spirit calling to him. 

Alby visits Ohm in hospital, telling him Fiona and Jerry's remains have been found but Mal is missing. Alby admits to vengefully spiking Ohm's whisky with Jerry's magic mushroom powder. Ohm notices he still has bruises on his wrists consistent with being placed in shackles, and recalls Jerry telling him that drugs allow people to open their mind to the supernatural. Ohm agrees to read Alby's manuscript the next day, and finishes opening his laptop and writing a more hopeful ending to his Conquistador (Austin Amelio) trilogy. 

With 'Hokum' Writer and Director Damian McCarthy has here crafted a modern day ghost story replete with tension, emotion, drama, the requisite jump scares, horror elements and a few moments of real jet black humour, as the perfectly cast Adam Scott delivers his sardonic, depressed and guilt ridden role with a deft touch. The atmosphere and sense of dread created on screen is almost palpable, which when added to the sound mix and production design make for a very worthwhile entry into the Irish horror folklore genre, that is certainly worth the price of your cinema ticket despite there being a couple of fairly glaring plot holes (spot them if you can!)

'Hokum' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-