LATE REVIEW: HOKUM
THE GIST
This was no hokum!
THE REVIEW
!!!SPOILERS!!!
EXPECTATIONS
Another late watch I really wanted to see.
Hokum was released April 30th and I was gutted I missed it.
My draw card was actor Adam Scott from Severance and Stepbrothers. I had also heard good things about the director Damian McCarthy’s previous works Oddity and Caveat.
RATINGS SO FAR
After a month and a half, ratings still average out at 7.7/10, rating it slightly higher than Backrooms, which sits at 7.5/10.
CONTEXT
Hokum was written and directed by Damian McCarthy, and based on his own original story. The Irish-US production was produced by Image Nation, Tailored Films and Spooky Pictures with producers including Roy Lee and Steven Schneider as well as Derek Dauchy, Ruth Treacy, Julianne Forde and Mairtín de Barra. It has support from Screen Ireland. The cast is led by Adam Scott, and also includes Peter Coonan and David Wilmot.
THE PLOT
A horror writer visits an Irish inn to scatter his parents' ashes, unaware the property is said to be haunted by a witch.
THE EXPERIENCE
I really want to see this again as I was a bit distracted upon viewing.
I’ll come back and flesh out the review a bit more after a rewatch.
THE MEAT
Note: Hokum is a noun that means nonsense, bunk, or absurd talk. It often refers to statements, ideas, or arguments that are insincere, unbelievable, or contrary to common sense.
The Story: It’s slow paced but when the twists and scares happen it caught me off guard. It intensifies about halfway through. The reveal that Ohm, as a kid, accidentally shot and killed his mother whilst playing with a gun was horrifying. That’s what made his Dad hate him and drink himself to death. Whilst there is a supernatural element to this, the main antagonist was a normal human driven to do horrible things to hide his guilt and to protect the sanctity of his family.
Adam Scott: He played Ohm who was a pretentious mean spirited prick when he was drinking at the beginning. He takes after his Dad. Then his attempted suicide happened which made me realise how depressed he is. Doesn’t excuse his behaviour though. But Adam played it really well. He was a great prick in Stepbrothers too.
Comparison: Compared to other recent modern horrors Obsession and Backrooms, it was more of a traditional horror flick having the witch in it and what not. It was a great film, but not genre altering like them.
The Ending: It was great at the end when Ohm chose to face the witch in order to get away from the killer.
I realised that Ohm was the only one left alive who had seen the witch so it could have all been in his head? And I came up with that theory before it was revealed Ohm’s drink was spiked with Mushrooms.
Ohm’s frame of mind had changed by the way he writes. The way he changed his story at the end shows he was more forgiving. He had his mother visit him during his mushroom trip and tell him it was an accident. I think the story he was writing was alluding to himself and his father. At the beginning the man wanted to kill the boy, but at the end, the father sacrificed himself, and instead, the boy chose to give up the riches instead of killing his father.
SUMMARY
It’s worth a second watch.
