It’s strange to call a hauntingly dark film moving, but Damian McCarthy’s Hokum manages to be just that.
Centered on Ohm, a novelist still grappling with an earth-shattering family tragedy, the film follows his journey to Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes. But when he checks into the hotel they stayed in for their honeymoon, he soon finds himself at the mercy of a sinister force.
The throughline of his past trauma coming back to haunt him (literally) makes for emotionally charged sequences that echo long after the final scene.
Adam Scott at the NY Hokum premiere (Shar Adrias)
For Scott, the pain the character works through as he struggles to complete his Conquistador trilogy was familiar.
“The great thing about this job is that you have the opportunity to work through real emotions, however you want to frame what you’re going through,” he told The Knockturnal at the film’s NY premiere.
After losing his mother, who passed away from ALS in 2020, the actor channeled his grief into his Severance character Mark Scout, who’s grieving the loss of his wife.
“On Severance, for example, we started shooting Season 1 soon after I lost my mom, so it was a time when I was still processing,” he shared. “Luckily, the show was there for me in that way. I think everything I do involves processing something you have to share yourself with the movie or TV show, so you want to share something real.”
That “something real” is what makes Hokum both riveting and heartbreaking. Ohm is a character who, though brash and self-destructive, the audience feels protective of. Much of that has to do with Scott’s performance, an endearing rendering of a broken man who you can’t help but want to see put himself back together.
Adam Scott and Damian McCarthy (NEON)
For McCarthy, whose previous films Caveat and Oddity were just as character-focused, Hokum is yet another illustration of his talent for crafting stories that are intimate and personal. Working primarily in the indie space and at times as an electrician, the Irish filmmaker seldom relies on special effects or grandiose gimmicks.
“My taste in horror would never be brutal or disturbing,” McCarthy said. “I think there always has to be some element of really liking the characters. Having wonderful actors who give these lovely performances makes you connect with them.”
As for his skill of creating atmospheric horror with his signature props and unmistakable attention to detail, the visionary credits his background in low-budget productions.
“Those early films always shape you as a filmmaker,” he said. “It comes from making a lot of short films where you have one actor and the camera’s very close to them, it’s that person you’re following through the story.”
Indeed, filming the spine-chilling third act of Hokum, which largely features Ohm trapped in the hotel’s haunted honeymoon suite, meant shooting with Scott alone for three straight weeks. Yet even with largely one character on screen, the final sequence builds to an ending that encapsulates everything the filmmaker does so masterfully: a blend of heart, humor, and horror. It’s an illumination of catharsis that proves gratifying.
“Even with Hokum and things I’m planning next, I find myself coming back to that.”
What he’s planning next may just be a collaboration with The Knockturnal. Watch our coverage of the Hokum premiere to find out more.
Neon’s Hokum premiered on May 1.
