After making a big splash in the flourishing original horror space with 2024’s Oddity, writer/director Damian McCarthy is back on the scene with his newest spooky tale, Hokum. Adam Scott stars as a famous writer who travels to a small Irish town, with the dual objectives of finishing his most recent work and to obtain closure with his childhood trauma. The atmosphere crafted for the film is an engaging one: the setting, score and visuals all combine for and admirable effort in psychological scares.
But as the story unfolds – especially the conclusion – the pay off and impact of the metaphorical themes and character arc for our protagonist, fall flat to an unsatisfying degree. A couple poor choices in McCarthy’s script diluted the potential of the effect I think he was intending; accompanied by some awkwardly executed exchanges of dialogue that felt weirdly out of place.
This film has some solid horror elements: creepy imagery, a couple good jump scares, and an interesting hook with Irish folklore. Unfortunately, it feels like a much better film was sitting there waiting to be elevated by a more compelling execution of storytelling. Hokum is a solid original horror film that is worth watching if you’re a fan of the genre. But in this golden era of auteur-driven visionary horror that leave indelible marks on cinema, Hokum is a middling and somewhat disappointing experience.
Spot on observation! While staring in the dark on my pc screen, with hardly anyone moving in the film, I got a headache and turned it off.
Too much scenes in darkness that made the story rarther unclear too. Suggestive danger than was actually showing up. I felt it had the atmosphere from
the 1980’s-90’s where it was still forgivable to have these flat scary scenes. But as also mentioned in above article: not today please!
It felt vague like suggestion wrapped up in suggestions. at a certain point I felt annoyed not being taken seriously as a viewer.