☆ ☆ ☆
Hokum (2026) – D. McCarthy
Irish director
Damian McCarthy’s third film – and the first after his breakthrough success
with Oddity (2024; streaming everywhere near you) – stars Adam Scott, who I
guess is an American TV star, but I’d never heard of him (although his latest
Netflix film does seem to star Robert De Niro, so “my bad”). Scott plays a decidedly unlikeable character,
Ohm Bauman, a successful writer but rude and willing to punch down on those
less fortunate. He’s come to this remote Irish hotel to bury his parents’
ashes, since this was where they had honeymooned decades earlier. However, the
honeymoon suite is locked up and no one is allowed to enter, given that there
is supposed to be a witch trapped inside.
Bauman isn’t against breaking in but he’s pretty ambivalent about
everything (and haunted, perhaps literally, by events earlier in his life).
McCarthy creates a lot of atmosphere in this old hotel, especially once we are
actually in the honeymoon suite and its environs, but the characters remain
rather thin. Throw in a few jump scares and some folk horror references and you’ve
got a solid horror outing – full of dread and spooky without requiring gore -- but
not something I need to watch again.
