Hokum
Directed by Damian McCarthy · Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot
Horror · 2026-05-01
“Adam Scott checks into a haunted Irish inn and Damian McCarthy proves once again that a single creaking room scares you more than a thousand jump scares ever could.”
Adam Scott trades the smirk for genuine dread as a novelist who comes to the Bilberry Woods Hotel in Ireland to scatter his parents' ashes and instead finds the place is sitting on a witch. Damian McCarthy, who already proved he can terrify on a budget, builds the whole nightmare out of stories the locals tell, each one unspooling into its own beautifully staged haunting. It is patient, atmospheric, and genuinely unsettling.
This is folk horror that trusts you. No orchestra stab to tell you when to flinch, no rubber monster overstaying its welcome, just a single haunted setting, gorgeous photography, and tension wound so tight you forget to breathe. The Shining and The Innocents are in its DNA, and for once those are earned comparisons rather than press-kit flattery.
If it has a flaw, it is that the anthology-of-hauntings structure means a couple of the inner tales hit harder than others, and the slow burn will lose anyone who came for carnage. But as a piece of pure mood and craft, Hokum is one of the most quietly terrifying films of the year, and Adam Scott proves his range stretches a lot further than comedy.
- 01
Damian McCarthy wrings overwhelming dread from a single location and zero cheap tricks.
- 02
Adam Scott delivers a surprising, fully committed dramatic horror turn.
- 03
The cinematography is gorgeous and oppressive in equal measure.
- 04
The story-within-a-story structure delivers several standout set pieces.
- 01
The anthology framing makes the scares uneven, with some tales weaker than others.
- 02
The deliberate slow burn will alienate viewers craving traditional jump scares.
- 03
A couple of the locals' stories feel like filler between the strongest sequences.
- 04
The ending lands quieter than the tension leading up to it has earned.
Fans of slow, atmospheric folk horror in the vein of The Shining and Damian McCarthy's earlier work who prize dread over gore.
Jump-scare junkies and anyone who finds patient, dialogue-driven horror boring rather than suffocating.
They leaned on Adam Scott's name and a single eerie hallway shot, which is honest for once, because the scares here cannot be spoiled in a thirty-second cut. The trailer wisely sells mood instead of money shots. The risk is that mood does not open a movie the way a screaming face does, so the best horror film nobody saw this spring might stay exactly that.
Your website, CV, or whatever you made. I'll roast that too.
A full teardown from €2,99. No mercy.