Author Ohm Bauman, long haunted by the deaths of his parents, returns to the hotel in Ireland where they once vacationed, hoping to spread their ashes in the place they were once happiest. He’s intrigued by the closed-off honeymoon suite and the strange and haunted tales he hears from locals. When one of the hotel staff members goes missing, Bauman plots to search the honeymoon suite for answers… but only finds himself further shocked.
I’m not familiar with the cinema of Damian McCarthy, and admittedly had to do some research as to who he is. Apparently, his earlier films were modest critical successes, and much of the early release buzz on HOKUM was quite good, giving me a feeling of potential optimism for the critics’ screening of the movie I attended. Adam Scott gives a great performance, and at times it’s outright haunting and scary. Even when I didn’t understand the plot or what the filmmakers were trying to convey, my eyes were still on the screen. Flawed but entertaining, HOKUM mostly succeeds at what it attempts to do.
The best thing HOKUM has going for it is its leading man. Adam Scott stars as author Ohm Bauman, journeying to Ireland and finding himself with more than he’d bargained for. The script makes Bauman an unlikeable jerk from the get-go, rebuking autograph requests, being cross with the hotel staff, and even literally burning the hand of a would-be writer! Yet somehow the script manages to make him sympathetic by the time the story ends. Scott’s performance is fantastic, and quite possibly my favorite part of the movie. The supporting cast, which includes the hotel staff and others loitering in the area, is enjoyably eccentric and lends some flavor to the tale.
The setting and atmosphere are additional strong suits HOKUM has available. This isn’t some big city or haunted house tale. A hotel in Ireland is certainly more interesting than the locales that have become cliches over the past century in film, and it certainly kept this viewer more interested and drawn in to the story. HOKUM held my interest with its settings and visuals alone, and that certainly says something for McCarthy’s film.
The imagery itself is just as haunting. I will admit that HOKUM did lose me a few times in its second half, since to put it simply, there were more than a few moments where I simply didn’t know what the hell was going on. The latter portion of the movie does struggle in this regard, swapping a story for frighteningly scary images and some unnecessary jump scares. And yet, this is far from being a bad movie.
HOKUM haunted me. It scared the hell out of me. And perhaps most importantly, it entertained me. It’s got a great cynical leading man in Adam Scott, a fantastic supporting cast, and an original setting that transcends the usual horror cliches. It’s not perfect (story is certainly traded out for shocking and scary moments in the third act), but it’s good enough for this critic, and should be for most fans of horror thrillers. Recommended.