Hokum (2026)
Hokum, director Damian McCarthy's newest horror feature for Neon, is told with the eerie, atmospheric edge of a ghost story relayed over a flickering campfire—and is all the better for it.
This won't come as much of a surprise for those familiar with McCarthy's work or fans of Neon's recent horror releases. McCarthy is perhaps best known for his 2024 film Oddity, a similarly twisty tale with an undeniably spooky atmosphere and penchant for suspense.
Neon, for its part, has emerged as an interesting horror counter-programmer to A24. Whereas A24's recent horror features have had an almost uniformly dour, trauma-forward tone—see 2025's disturbingly self-serious Bring Her Back and this year's grim Undertone—Neon's releases, such as last year's The Monkey and 2024's Cuckoo, have often adopted a Grimms' fairytale-esque playfulness.
Hokum splits the difference between those two studios' approaches to fairly satisfying results. Adam Scott plays Ohm Bauman, a decidedly prickly American author traveling to Ireland to visit the hotel where his late parents spent their honeymoon many years ago. Ohm quickly learns of local legend that the hotel's honeymoon suite—which is locked at all times and inaccessible to guests—is haunted by a witch. Not too long after Ohm arrives, hotel bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh) goes missing, prompting an unlikely hero's journey for Ohm to discover what happened to her...leading him right to the honeymoon suite and into the heart of the supernatural stories to which he's just become privy.
Scott plays Ohm with a searing callousness that hints at the traumatic backstory which Hokum reveals in dribs and drabs. Amazingly, we root for Ohm by the film's climax, despite his blatant rudeness and cruelty in the film's first hour.
The film's other key roles are well-cast, from Peter Coonan as the hotel's desk clerk and Ordesh as Fiona. Particular praise should go to David Wilmot for his dynamic performance as Jerry, a local psilocybin-enthusiast living in his van outside the hotel, who may have been the last person to see Fiona before she went missing.
Hokum's
narrative can feel a bit overstuffed at times. There are, in no short order,
one or more ghosts, a witch, a murder plot, a suicide attempt, a traumatic
family backstory, a demented children's talk show host, and more. However, the
film's eerie Irish setting and effectively rendered jolts make Hokum a
tale worth telling...and a terrifying trip worth taking.
