HOKUM
(director/writer: Damian McCarthy; cinematographer: Colm Hoga; editor: Brian Philip Davis; music: Joseph Bischara; cast: Austin Amelio (Conquistador), Ezra Carlisle (Boy), David Wilmot (Jerry), Adam Scott (Ohm Bauman), Mallory Adams (Ohm’s mother), Peter Coonan (Mal, hotel manager), Sioux Carroll (Witch), Florence Ordesh (Fiona), Michael Patric (Fergal), Will O’Connell (Alby/Jack), Brendan Conroy (Mr. Cob, hotel owner; Runtime: 107; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Derek Dauchy, Mairtin de Barra, Julianne Forde, Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Ruth Treacy; Neon/Spooky Pictures; 2026-Ireland/United Arab Emirates/United States)
“Has the style but lacks the substance.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Irish horror filmmaker Damian McCarthy (“Oddity”/”Caveat”) directs and writes this playful Irish folklore film that has the style but lacks the substance.
The prickly bachelor Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is an embittered asshole American writer who is living in Pullman City, Washington, where he’s struggling with the epilogue on his new novel “The Conquistador Trilogy. The novel’s about a nameless conquistador (Austin Amelio) hunting in a desert for buried treasures with a 7-year-old boy (Ezra Carlisle).
Ohm flies to Ireland for the first time to scatter the ashes of his dead parents under mom’s favorite redwood tree located in the woods on the hotel grounds where she spent her honeymoon. His drunken father abusively raised him after his mom died when he was a child.
Ohm checks into the dilapidated old Billberry Woods Hotel, in West Cork, and the famous author meets in the lobby the elderly hotel owner (Peter Coonan) while he’s telling a few children some tales about witches living in the hotel’s sealed-off Honeymoon Suite. The American writer says that’s hokum, not realizing he’s talking to the hotel owner.
During his stay at the hotel, Ohm’s’s rude to the help–the hotel manager at the front desk, Mal (Peter Coonan), the proud maid and bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh), the chatty aspiring writer bellboy Alby (Will O’Connell) and the groundskeeper Fergal (Michael Patric).
Ohm meets a disheveled man living in his van in the woods, who is surviving on hallucinogenic mushrooms. He’s named Jerry (David Wilmot), and the eccentric catches the writer’s interest.
There’s also a witch (Sioux Carroll) supposedly roaming around the haunted hotel, which has a creepy basement.
The story spins off in different directions with flashbacks, telling a back story on the writer (who is viewed as a substitute for the director). It also tells a story about a missing staff member and of someone trapped in the honeymoon suite when snooping around.
The low-budget horror pic is strong on atmosphere and its supernatural visuals are catchy, but it’s too convoluted to be a memorable film.
It played at the SXSW Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 5/4/2026 GRADE: C+
dennisschwartzreviews.com