There is an inherent horror in staying in a hotel. Entrusting your safety completely in the hands of a group of strangers, knowing they have the key to where you sleep, your personal information, and really anything they would need to blackmail or put you at risk. It’s a level of trust we don’t often think about, and this is part of what makes it a prime setting for horror.
Hokum, the newest film from director Damian McCarthy, follows in the hotel horror tradition set up by legends like The Shining, Hostel, 1409, and others. Writer and miserable alcoholic Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is visiting Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes, not out of any sense of care, but guilt. From the start, things are very strange at The Bilberry Woods Hotel and people mutter about witches, ghosts, and spirits as though they were real. For better (and definitely for worse), Ohm is about to find out just how real some of it is.
I’m a huge fan of McCarthy’s last film Oddity, and Hokum has a similar energy. Very deliberate and well-paced, this is a movie that wants you to pay attention. The plot isn’t exactly complicated, but second-screeners will find it incomprehensible as so much of it is visual poetry. McCarthy builds up a world piece by piece that only makes complete sense in its final act, and it’s quite rewarding for those willing to stick with it.
The performances are great, with surprisingly the least engaging being from Adam Scott. He’s still fine in the role, but you don’t feel his pain here like audiences do in Severance or Big Little Lies. Granted this is his first foray into horror, and it’s clearly not his wheelhouse yet. I’d be interested to see him in more horror in the future, but this is a complex role with a lot of emotion and I’m not sure he nails it.
The whole film is a love letter to Kubrick’s The Shining, and it’s not exactly subtle. We’ve got an author at a creepy hotel of course, but even nuances like the animal costume and the iconic axe make an appearance. That’s not to say it’s derivative though, as I think it overall works very well as its own thing. Ohm’s role as an author plays a significant role, as his story of the Conquistador weaves through the events of the haunting, representing Ohm’s changing perspective. I read online that some reviewers found this messy and made the narrative overly crowded, but I disagree. Even with a lot going on, it’s still a very simple story with consistent themes throughout the different characters and their experiences.
Like McCarthy’s previous films, there’s a heavy focus on setting and individual objects for creating an uncertain and eerie setting, and my god, it works here. There are so many little touches, from the creepy kid on the dinging clock to the creaky and aged nature of the hotel’s halls and rooms, that just work together to create something deeply unsettling.
I think it will probably take McCarthy a few more films before he gets the accolades he deserves, but he’s definitely one of the more interesting horror directors working today. Each film is a solid, scary, and unique take on an established genre. I cannot wait to see what he does next.
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