As an alcoholic writer (an original concept, eh?) struggling to complete his latest novel, Adam Scott is Ohm Bauman (personally, I'd be mad at my parents for naming me). Still, the actor is well cast in the role. He travels to an isolated hotel in rural Ireland, to scatter his mother's ashes. But he soon discovers that one of the rooms is haunted by a mysterious witch. The ensuing disappearance of the hotel bartender (Florence Ordesh) sets the plot in motion, and turns Bauman into a type of a 'sleuth.'
The movie's plot is at times engaging, at other times derivative. There are several good scares, scenes where Bauman sees an apparition in the mirror, only to turn around and find nothing and no one. The violence is wisely kept off screen, and the final act is thrilling in all the right ways.
But, ultimately, I found Hokum to be just too little, too late. Despite some decent production design, it feels a bit cheap, bordering on good amateurism, rather than poor professionalism. There are those who consider writer/director Damian McCarthy a talented horror auteur. Alas, I am not among them. Hokum is ways better than his previous outings - especially than the grossly overrated Oddity (2024). If he's to reach the prestige levels of Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, he's got a little further to go.
☆☆1/2
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