Hokum – Film Review

Director – Damian McCarthy
Writer – Damian McCarthy
Stars – Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot

In this film, we meet Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott), a successful American writer. He’s travelled to Ireland to scatter the ashes of his mother and father. His parents went to the Bilberry Woods Hotel in Ireland for their honeymoon, and now he has returned to the same venue. While Ohm’s career has gone well as a writer, he’s less successful as an individual. He’s spiky, acerbic and confrontational, and has a few sharp words for the staff of the Hotel. He meets Mal (Peter Coonan), the hotel manager, and Alby (Will O’Connell), the bellboy. The only member of the staff he has any time for is Fiona (Florence Ordesh), who works behind the bar. She tells Ohm that there is a rumour that the Honeymoon suite is haunted, and that a witch lives there. He instantly dismisses it as hokum, but could there be some truth to the tale?

This is a new movie from writer/ director Damian McCarthy, who previously worked on films such as Oddity (2024) and Caveat (2020). This is his biggest release to date and feels like a step into the major leagues for the man from West Cork. It has been said before, but Ireland is developing quite a scene for horror films, with directors like Lee Cronin and Lorcan Finnegan, among others.

While Adam Scott is front and centre of the story, the rest of the characters are almost all Irish actors, with Peter Coonan, David Wilmot and Will O’Connell all having substantial speaking roles. The film features a large number of quirky individuals in the Hotel, and it’s an interesting dynamic between the ‘yank’ and the Irish staff.

The film is a good yarn with many different strands. Not all of these elements work perfectly, and there are a few plot holes and loose threads, if you want to start pulling at them. The film takes a while to settle, but once it does, it’s an enjoyable and hair-raising tale of things that go bump in the night! While it is a horror, the 15A cert will tell you that it’s not overly scary, and there is a lot of humour to lighten the mood. Adam Scott is in almost every scene. His recent fame due to the success of Severance will help to launch this to a wider audience than most smaller horror film releases.