★★★ (3 out of 4)
If you didn’t already realize than Damien McCarthy is a visionary new talent in horror after “Oddity” and “Caveat,” then “Hokum” will seal the deal. Jeez—the dude’s first name even has an “Omen” vibe. And get this—the lead character, played by the reliably superb Adam Scott, is a Stephen King-ish author named Ohm Bauman. Or maybe it’s a Buddhist chant. OK, enough of omens.
The plot goes this way: Our man Ohm is in Ireland. Not for a vacation but to spread the ashes of his parents at the old-world Billberry Woods Hotel where they spent their honeymoon. Aw! Not really. Ohm is a real rat bastard, an entitled ugly American whose disdain spreads quickly to Alby (Will O’Connell), a bellhop and wannabe writer who annoys Ohm no end, hotel handyman Fergal (Michael Patric), smiley front desk clerk Mal (an excellent Peter Coonan), and hotel owner Mr. Cobb (Brendan Conroy), whom Ohm watched telling scary stories to terrified young children. Who does that!
Damien McCarthy is a visionary new talent in horror and this new one will keep you up nights.
Escaping Ohm’s wrath is friendly bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh), who rescues Ohm from a suicide attempt after a hotel Halloween party. After being released from the hospital, Ohm returns to the hotel to thank her, only to learn from Mal that she’s gone missing. Told by local weirdo and Fiona friend Jerry (David Wilmot), who lives in a van in the woods and uses mushrooms to ward off his demons, that he needs to return to the hotel and check out the always locked honeymoon suite, reportedly occupied by a ghostly witch, where Ohm finds himself trapped and enduring his own personal hell.
And that’s the part of the movie about which I will spoil nothing, except for the revelations about Ohm’s personal trauma involving the death of his mother along with a prologue and an epilogue about Ohm trying to end his latest book about a 16th-century conquistador (Austin Amelio) in the desert with a child he appears to be menacing. If you think this all goes back to Ohm’s own youthful tribulations, you’re on the right track. If you’re also thinking the whole thing is in Ohm’s head, think again.
Right off you need to know that “Hokum” is not a gorefest and nowhere near as hokey as its title suggests. McCarthy, with his own Irish roots, laces his film in folklore and mounting suspense. He also loves jump scares, which usually strike me as cheap tricks. But not in the hands of McCarthy and his ace tech team of wicked wizards, including cinematographer Colm Hogan, editor Brian Phillip Davis, composer Joseph Bishara and production designer Til Frohlich. “Hokum” looks and sounds great, all in the service of creeping you out big time.
McCarthy has clearly been influenced by “The Shining,” “The Innocents” and an underseen 2007 gem called “1408” with John Cusack as another writer with bad luck at picking hotels. Yet McCarthy absorbs those influences only to create his own mesmerizing vision of a world turned upside down, a psychological thriller about things that go bump in the night and screw with your conscience. “Hokum” will keep you up nights. And I mean that as a compliment.