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By Rohan Coleman

Long ago in Ireland, a terrifying talent was created to strike fear into the hearts of international audiences, vowing to craft the most paralyzingly paranormal films of the modern age. That talented was found in Damian McCarthy, a writer and director whose latest triumph, Hokum, once again proved he was a force to be reckoned with. Combining Irish folklore, haunted hotels, and family trauma effortlessly, Hokum is McCarthy’s biggest and most ambitious project to date.

Starring Adam Scott of Severance and Big Little Lies fame, this spine-chilling movie traps you in its long hallways and dark corners, demanding your attention and destroying any hopes of a restful sleep after the credits have rolled.

Adam Scott masterfully portrays Ohm Bauman, an arrogant American writer tethered to Ireland through his parents’ ashes, as he journeys to Cork to spread their remains at the site of their honeymoon. Unluckily for Ohm, his dearly beloved late parents happened to honeymoon at an isolated hotel, said by locals to be haunted by a witch. With his holiday cut short by the frightening folklore of his accommodation and a gruesome walk down memory lane, Ohm is forced to fight through the darkness, as he relives and renegotiates lingering events from his childhood and battles to outlast the entities and creatures waiting for him at his hotel.

As is expected from McCarthy, Hokum is filled to the brim with horribly uncomfortable sequences that have you begging to be scared simply to be able to breathe again. Horror editing legend Brian Philip Davis leaves his mark all over the film, stretching every ounce of terror out of every single moment. Between the gritty atmosphere, uncanny figures and inescapable traumas, this movie guarantees a permanent spot in your nightmares for days, weeks, months to come. McCarthy’s cruel style of horror incorporates the welcomed jumps found in most horror movies, though it prioritises the tricks your mind will inevitably play on you as you’re forced to watch in anticipation around each corner, under each bed, and behind every curtain.

Hemmed together by untrustworthy and unreadable characters, this narrative is as emotionally engaging as it is terrifying. Both through Ohm’s intense journey through his past traumas and the soulful and complicated interactions with our side characters, Hokum draws you in with its frights and keeps your attention with its strange and sinful supporting cast. Come for the scares, stay for the emotion.
Once again Damian McCarthy proves his comfortability as a leading creative mind in the modern horror scene. Driven by enclosed spaces and stripped back narratives, his stories guarantee terrifying sequences wedged between increasingly odd characters. Hokum is in cinemas now.

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