Hokum sends Adam Scott to a remote Irish inn where the rooms are gloomy, the locals are evasive and the honeymoon suite may contain a centuries-old witch. Damian McCarthy turns grief, folklore and one extremely poor accommodation choice into an atmospheric horror mystery packed with dread and precisely timed scares.
Film details
- Title: Hokum
- Premiere date in the Netherlands: 23 July 2026
- Director: Damian McCarthy
- Runtime: 107 minutes
- Genre: Horror, mystery, thriller
- Countries: Ireland, United States
- Language: English
- Subtitles: Dutch
- Age rating: 16+
- Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh and Austin Amelio
- Confirmed Rotterdam cinema: Cinerama
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What’s the vibe?
Horror novelist Ohm Bauman travels to an isolated Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes near the place where they once spent their honeymoon. He is grieving, emotionally closed off and hardly the sort of guest who brightens the breakfast room.
The trip becomes considerably less therapeutic when Ohm hears stories about a witch haunting the inn’s sealed honeymoon suite. Unsettling visions, strange locals and a disappearance pull him deeper into the property’s history, while the boundary between supernatural danger and his own troubled past starts to wobble.
Director Damian McCarthy favours shadowy corridors, suggestive sounds and the uncomfortable feeling that something is standing just outside the frame. The result mixes haunted-hotel horror with Irish folklore, psychological mystery and a streak of very dark humour. It is chilly, strange and apparently determined to make hotel corridors feel unsafe again.
Trailer
Check out the trailer below.
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Why you might like it
- Eyes: A decaying rural inn, murky woodland, sinister corridors and imagery that turns an ordinary hotel stay into a waking nightmare.
- Heart: Beneath the supernatural mystery sits a story about grief, guilt and the stories people construct to survive their past.
- Mind: The film keeps asking whether Ohm is uncovering local folklore, losing control of his imagination or being led towards something far worse.
Critical reception.
Hokum has received a strong critical response. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists the film at 90% from 199 reviews, with an 82% audience score from more than 1,000 verified ratings. Its critical consensus praises the film’s combination of haunted-house traditions, atmospheric folklore and carefully placed shocks.
Metacritic gives Hokum a score of 76 from 32 critic reviews, placing it in the generally favourable category. Twenty-five of the reviews in its calculation are positive, seven are mixed and none are classified as negative.
The most enthusiastic reviews praise McCarthy’s control of darkness, sound and misdirection, along with Adam Scott’s performance as a deeply unpleasant but increasingly vulnerable protagonist. Several critics have described it as McCarthy’s most accomplished or accessible film so far.
The response is not completely unanimous. More reserved critics argue that the story becomes convoluted, occasionally drifts into familiar horror territory or stretches its mystery longer than necessary. Even many of these reviews still acknowledge the film’s atmosphere and ability to produce genuine scares.
Hokum received four Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations, plus nominations at the Golden Trailer Awards and Astra Midseason Movie Awards. The film had its world premiere in the Midnighter programme at the 2026 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival.
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Scene to watch for
Watch Ohm’s first proper encounter with the sealed honeymoon suite. The film does not need to show much to make the door feel like a terrible idea. The silence, the surrounding corridor and the reactions of the inn’s staff do most of the work.
It is a useful introduction to McCarthy’s approach. He lets curiosity draw the character closer, while every sensible instinct in the audience is quietly requesting a taxi.
Recommended pairing
Have something warm and comforting beforehand, such as a bowl of stew, toasted bread or a hearty pie. Remote Irish inns may be questionable places to sleep, but they do understand the visual appeal of proper comfort food.
Afterwards, take a short walk through a busy, well-lit part of the city. You may appreciate the presence of other people, functioning street lamps and buildings without boarded-up honeymoon suites.
Need-to-knows
Hokum is written and directed by Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy, whose previous features include Caveat and Oddity. Viewers familiar with those films can expect another carefully constructed supernatural mystery built around unsettling objects, odd behaviour and spaces that feel actively hostile.
The film was shot in Ireland, with its remote hotel setting and surrounding landscape forming a major part of the atmosphere. It premiered at South by Southwest on 14 March 2026 before opening internationally.
The Dutch cinema release is rated 16, with warnings for fear and coarse language. The film is presented in English with Dutch subtitles.
