Title – Hokum (2026)

Director – Damian McCarthy (Oddity)

Cast – Adam Scott, David Wilmot, Peter Coonan, Florence Ordesh

Plot – Visiting a remote part of Ireland, horror writer Ohm Bauman (Scott) discovers the hotel he is staying at holds a very dark secret.  

“We’ve been expecting you”

Review by Eddie on 22/06/2026

Now three feature films into his directional career, I’m convinced that Irish director Damian McCarthy is set to one day deliver an all-time genre classic sooner rather than later, with his biggest and most prominent release yet Hokum showcasing why this sentiment comes with some hard supportive evidence.

Generating significant hype at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, McCarthy’s Neon released film has managed to join the parade of low-budget horror hits that have come thick and fast across the first half of 2026, marching on its merry way to decent box office returns and critical raves, undoubtedly putting McCarthy on many studios radars following on from his earlier indie efforts Caveat and the intriguing Oddity.

Initially setting itself up in a familiar feeling way as we are introduced to Adam Scott’s horror writer Ohm Bauman, Hokum slowly but surely morphs into a more unpredictable beast as Bauman’s personal struggles are intertwined with the odd happenings at the rural Irish hotel he is staying in, as he looks to overcome past traumas and new mysteries that will lead him to some unpleasant discoveries.

Marketed as a more visceral and Conjuring like horror affair in the lead up to its wide release, Hokum is a far more slowly paced and methodical experience than some viewers might expect heading into it but there’s a great sense of unease and dread that McCarthy creates from this ride, including some stunning set design and production sensibilities that makes the setting of his film one of the more memorable from recent horror offerings over the past few years.

Almost feeling like three separate films in one, Hokum’s middle section is undoubtedly its strongest as Scott’s Bauman starts to discover some of the reasonings behind the hotels secrecy and legends and while Bauman is initially very hard to like in the films early stages, Scott does a good job of bringing his character to a point where we are behind his quest to survive the predicament he has found himself in.

Bringing the film down however is a relatively weak script from McCarthy who can’t bring his words to life the way in which he brings the visual elements of his film to fruition, there’s a lot of stilted dialogue and forced feeling conversations/happenings at play here that aren’t quite up to scratch, while strangely overall the film feels as though it would’ve benefited greatly from more memorable and hearty scares, other than continual ominous dread that doesn’t often amount to a significant payoff.

At days end feeling more like an “almost” film rather than one that fully met its potential, Hokum is a fun if mostly forgettable exercise that continues to tease the filmmaker McCarthy should hopefully become, a proposition that should excite horror and general film fans in a big way.

Final Say –

Hokum is a film full of possibilities that aren’t always met, creating a visually impressive if narratively weak experience that does just enough to suggest the cinematic journey of writer/director Damian McCarthy is still trending towards something special.

3 honeymoon suites out of 5