A ‘new classic’ Irish thriller is available to watch this week

Featuring a Hollywood star in the lead role, JOE spoke to the actor about his experience filming in Ireland.

The horror thriller follows Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott - Parks and Recreation, Severance), a troubled American author. This is as he travels to a secluded forest in the Irish countryside to scatter the ashes of his parents, who once honeymooned in the area.

Staying in a nearby hotel, whose retro design and location make it feel like Ireland's take on The Overlook Hotel, the writer initially wants to be left completely alone.

Yet, Ohm gradually finds himself pulled into a strange mystery involving the disappearance of one of the building's staff and rumours of an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite.

Hokum Review

Hokum is only the third feature from Irish writer-director Damian McCarthy. Yet, he's already established himself as one of Ireland's best working filmmakers.

In 2020, he made his debut with the supremely creepy low-budget horror Caveat. McCarthy then followed this in 2024 with his breakthrough movie, Oddity, a brilliantly gothic ghost story, full of terrifying totems and ghoulish Hitchcockian wit.

WATCH: Adam Scott and Damian McCarthy's spoiler-free interview with JOE about Hokum

In a way, Hokum feels like a companion piece to Caveat and Oddity. It's another ghost story shot in West Cork. Also, like Oddity, it features a haunting bellhop figure (a standout Will O'Connell), and a narrative that jumps backwards and forwards in time and between characters, a structure which keeps the surprises coming constantly and quickly.

That said, whereas Oddity was perhaps set-piece first, character second, Hokum feels like the opposite. It's a storytelling choice that feels intentional, given that its lead character is a novelist. Indeed, the movie features scenes depicting what Ohm has written, a device that provides a striking opening to Hokum, as well as a surprisingly moving denouement.

That said, thanks to McCarthy's clever writing and the way he unfolds information, as well as the inherent likability of Scott, the viewer is always compelled by Ohm and winds up deeply caring about the author.

Like Oddity, the writer-director throws a lot of different characters and plot threads at the viewer. In terms of the latter, there's the question of whether Ohm can overcome his trauma. This plotline also becomes entangled in a ghost story mystery that blends Irish myth with everyday evil, some of which harkens back to the country's more recent dark past.

On top of this, there's a melange of different tones. The movie blends horror and thriller elements, with authentic human drama and strange gallows humour (There's a recurring gag involving goats in the nearby forest ingesting psychedelic mushrooms that is very, very funny).

This all may sound convoluted. Yet, it ties together beautifully onscreen, aside from maybe one late-in-the-game reveal that recontextualises some of what came before, in a way that may make viewers' heads spin.

Plus, when Hokum embraces haunted house spectacle in its second half, as Scott's protagonist (slightly inexplicably) ventures deeper and deeper into the bowels of the hotel in search of answers, it's properly, hair-raisingly scary.

Between Hokum and Lee Cronin's The Mummy earlier this month, Irish horror fans have never been so spoiled.

JOE dubbed The Mummy "a hardcore horror crowdpleaser". Similarly, we'd call Damian McCarthy's latest a new classic in terms of Irish horror thrillers.

Hokum Interview

Ahead of Hokum's cinema release on Friday, 1 May, JOE spoke to the film's star, Adam Scott, and its writer-director, Damian McCarthy.

During the conversation, Scott was full of praise for West Cork, which is McCarthy's birthplace and where he has shot his three features to date.

The Severance star said of the area: "Oh, it was amazing. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been... Probably the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen.

"The weather is always shifting down there. I would go on a walk, and it would go from pouring rain to a light drizzle to sunshine, and then back to cloudy.

"Whenever I had time, I would just get lost on this estate I was staying on, the Liss Ard estate down in Skibbereen.

"I just loved it. It was beautiful, and the people were just the best.

"[There] was always a great conversation waiting for you when you'd stop and talk to someone.

"Everyone's so kind and really smart. Smart people there in Ireland."

McCarthy, meanwhile, spoke to JOE about how the unexpected collaboration between him and Scott came about.

"Well, I've just been a fan of Adam's forever. When it looked like Hokum was actually going to happen, we started talking about who this could be, and it was a coincidence for me that I was finishing watching [Scott's show] Severance," he told us.

"I was just blown away by it... I was thinking: 'Well, that performance was amazing.'

"Sometimes you just get lucky. [Adam] had seen Oddity, and I was able to get the script to him... We wanted to approach the film in the same way and the character in the same way."

McCarthy also noted that Ohm is a "challenging" figure in several aspects and required a "very watchable" actor to play him.

"[In Hokum], once you get past that first act, there's a lot of time where it's just the actor alone. There's no dialogue, there's no voiceover, there's no screen partner," he explained.

"So, you need somebody who's very, very watchable that can carry all of that. Watching Adam over the years, I said: 'Well, that would be very interesting'.

"There's also the fact that the character starts off quite unlikable, and then they have to kind of win the audience back as they go along.

"In the variety of Adam's body of work... [he has] played quite mean characters, but there's also that comedic element to him as well.

"With everything there, I said: 'This would be the perfect person to partner up with and do this,' and it worked out."

Hokum is in cinemas on Friday, 1 May.