Hokum review: Adam Scott at a spooky Irish inn

Hokum follows Ohm Bauman, a bestselling fantasy author played by Adam Scott, who travels to a rural Irish hotel to scatter his parents' ashes and stall over the epilogue to his Conquistador trilogy. Damian McCarthy directs, using the simple setting as the backbone for a folk-horror tale that leans on atmosphere and mounting dread.

The inn is full of odd characters: a vaguely unseemly owner, a vagrant named Jerry (David Wilmot), and Fiona (Florence Ordesh), the barkeep who warms Ohm up before vanishing during the annual Halloween party. Local lore about a witch locked in the abandoned honeymoon suite pushes Ohm and Jerry toward the inn's forbidden upper rooms.

McCarthy, who made Caveat and Oddity, keeps the action largely in one location and proves adept at building and releasing tension. He telegraphs scares—most notably a mechanical cherub on an old clock—so the audience shares in the mounting unease, while an incongruous children's TV program and other details make several moments genuinely unsettling.

Ireland

hokum, adam scott, damian mccarthy, folk horror, irish inn, david wilmot, florence ordesh, conquistador trilogy, mechanical cherub, halloween party