Movie Review: Hokum

Welcome back one and all to a new movie review, this time featuring Hokum, starring Adam Scott.

Now, standard movie review fare applies, which means there are spoilers below, so proceed at your own risk!

Hokum follows Ohm Bauman, an American writer who travels to a remote Irish hotel to spread his parents' ashes, where he learns the honeymoon suite is haunted by a witch. While there, he attempts suicide after recounting his mom’s murder and his dad’s subsequent years of abuse, only to be saved in the nick of time by the hotel bartender. Upon his discharge from the hospital, he returns to the hotel to collect his items, only to discover his savior has gone missing, and the prime suspect Jerry (a mysterious man in the woods who Ohm briefly encountered earlier), has also disappeared. Ohm then finds Jerry, who informs him that he saw the bartender’s ghost pointing him toward the honeymoon suite, and while initially skeptical, Ohm breaks into the hotel and finds his way to the honeymoon suite, where he learns the rumors about the witch are true. He also learns that the hotel manager was sleeping with the bartender, and after discovering she was pregnant, he had drugged her, brought her to the honeymoon suite, and sent her into the basement for the witch. After Ohm discovers this, the hotel manager attempts to do the same to him, and he only survives by surrounding himself with a chalk circle, which repels the witch. She does however torture Ohm with the memory of his mother, who we find out was actually killed by him, after he accidentally shot his father’s gun as a child. Ohm ultimately ends up escaping after Jerry comes to his aid, but he is the sole survivor as the hotel manager kills Jerry, and then succumbs to the witch, who drags him into the underworld.

Alright, with the plot out of the way, let me say that I had a good time with Hokum, and I really appreciate a fresh new idea in the horror movie realm.

Some standouts from the film include Adam Scott, who was really great, and while his character was a huge asshole, Adam Scott portrayed this very well, and I think this was an nice break from the gullible, naive, and kind characters that he typically plays. The cast as a whole was great, but Adam Scott really stole the show, and I hope he gets more nods in the horror genre, because he plays an amazing cynical skeptic character.

I also loved the cinematography of this movie, and the way the hotel in particular was shot felt like another character. So much so that I walked out thinking I could navigate the hotel if I were plopped in it, and I think anytime a movie makes you feel this way, it’s done an exceptional job of portraying a space. I think this is all the more important in horror movies, because when the audience can identify and resonate with your character’s location, then the feelings of dread, being trapped, and overall horror are amplified.

While the cast and cinematography were great, the clear star of this movie is the witch and her scenes. She was terrifying, she felt always near even though we didn’t fully see her until the last half of the movie, and the physicality of Sioux Carroll (who portrayed the witch), made her so insanely intimidating, and all the more terrifying. I loved every scene we saw her, and her characterization was so fresh and unique, and it stands out exquisitely against the typical witch portrayal/horror movie.

Honestly, if you see Hokum for any reason, it should be for the witch and her scenes. I cannot hype this up enough, and this movie demands a watch for this alone.

As for some things I didn’t love, the movie did feel a bit long winded, rambling, and at times it overexplained things. The most glaring example came at the end when Ohm is in the hospital, and the hotel bellboy comes to tell him he had spiked his whiskey with magic mushrooms, and then we cut back to a previous scene where Jerry explained that mushrooms open people’s eyes to the supernatural.

I found this to be very unnecessary, because this is an only an hour and forty-seven-minute movie, and I think you need to trust in your audience’s attention span more than this. Not everything needs to be overexplained, and if you think people will forget or ignore a particular scene, I think that requires more attention and thought than just replaying it sixty minutes later.

I also found the multiple other flashbacks to be a bit long winded and over explained, because we see characters do everything from walking, to pressing elevator buttons, to riding elevators, and it’s just too much. Again, I think you need to trust that your audience can put two and two together, and I think this tendency to over explain was the weakest link in Hokum.

All in all though, Hokum is still a very good movie, a fun time, and a really fresh take in the horror genre, and I rated this movie as a 3 1/2 stars on Letterboxd, and I did give it a like as well.

Looking Ahead

Well, there you have it, another May movie review, and another pretty good movie.

Looking ahead, I’ll publish my review of Animal Farm on Friday, and I am going to see Mother Mary and Deep Water soon. I’m thinking I may post those and Over Your Dead Body at the end of the month since I’ll be on vacation then, but of course I’ll keep you all posted, and all reviews will come in due time.

But in the meantime, be on the lookout for my next review on Animal Farm, which will be posted on Friday!