JONESING FOR FILMS

I think we have been living in a period of peak horror. For nearly a decade now, we have had a sustained run of high quality, inventive horror movies that have given us some fresh original ideas and some refreshing spins on old tropes. Hokum is the latest in that line in 2026, a year that is off to a strong start in the genre.

Adam Scott portrays Ohm Bauman, an accomplished author, who travels to a remote Irish hotel to finish the last novel in his trilogy and scatter his parents’ ashes. When he arrives, he mixes with the locals like oil mixes with water. He does, however, manage to get on semi-friendly terms with the hotel’s bartender, Fiona (Florence Ordesh). He also happens to overhear the owner of the hotel tell two young kids a tale about the honeymoon suite being haunted by a witch who chains people and leads them to hell.

After an incident puts him in the hospital, Ohm returns to discover that Fiona has disappeared. The clues of her disappearance point Ohm in the direction of the purportedly haunted honeymoon suite, a room sealed off to the public for years and accessible only by a locked and barricaded elevator. Feeling a sense of obligation after Fiona saved his life, Ohm seeks access to the room and answers to her disappearance.

The film opens on the scene that Ohm is writing to close out his trilogy about a conquistador about to sacrifice his son/apprentice to unlock the treasure he has desperately searched for. It is very bleak, similar to Ohm’s outlook on life. Ohm is among the most misanthropic characters that I have come across in quite some time. He is acerbic toward everyone he comes into contact with socially, and seems to reserve his deepest contempt for anyone who claims to be a fan of his work. At one point, he belittles and humiliates a member of the hotel staff who has the temerity to approach him at the bar and say he is a fan and aspiring writer himself.

There are some thrills and jump scares in Hokum, but mostly is a film that is heavy on mood and atmosphere and mounting dread, while also unleashing a few unnerving images for good measure. Ohm is personally haunted by trauma in his past, too, which compounds the haunting that awaits in the honeymoon suite. The suite gives off strong haunted vibe, like something is just a bit off. Liminal spaces apparently are going to be a big theme in horror this year (Exit 8 and Back Rooms), and part of what is supposed to make that unsettling is the abandoned quality, something this room has after being locked up and left untouched for who know how long.

At one point, the TV in the honeymoon suite begins to play a TV show from Ohm’s childhood, but it’s a nightmare version of the show from his memory, instead of a woman in a bunny suit hosting a kid’s show, one tied directly to his childhood trauma, it’s an anthropomorphized bunny woman. Later on, as he sleeps, the witch appears and watches him in the form of the nightmarish bunny woman.

The film manages to keep things fresh by not confining everything to the honeymoon suite, with there being a few additional reveals about the hotel that Ohm discovers once he is in there, but also having some action take place outside of the hotel involving a character trying to help him look for Fiona.

Fiona at one point explains the lore of the witch to Ohm early on, her plans to one day go up there looking for the witch, and things she can do to protect herself when she is up there, one of which is drawing a circle of protection with chalk. Coincidentally, I happened to have watched Viy, noted for being the first horror movie from the Soviet Union from 1967 about a seminarian who must sit 3 nights over a wake for a witch he killed and he also uses a circle of protection to ward her off.

Personally, I would’ve liked a bit more of the haunted room/house and the witch and a little less of the human element being responsible for the events that transpire. The natural elements involved in the disappearance of Fiona and Ohm’s struggles in the hotel in searching for her are a little pedestrian, while the build-up around the witch and the disturbing imagery don’t have as much payoff as I would’ve like to see. The atmosphere is great but there is just a tad more style than substance overall.

Hokum is a film that does a tremendous job evoking a place and setting a mood, using the slightly quirky setting of a remote Irish hotel and creating folklore around a local witch to tell a tale that can haunt not just the main character, but the viewer as well thanks to some stellar and unsettling imagery.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5