‘Hokum’ is a horror must watch
The beginning of May is a strange time to watch a horror movie — and an even stranger time for a film studio to release one. Though spooky season has long been absent, Neon’s new horror film, “Hokum,” made its way to theaters on May 1. In the springtime, it felt contradictory to enter a dark, claustrophobic theater with the intention of getting frightened by a film set in October. Maybe I hoped the sunny outdoors would save me from a potential scare inside my cinema seat. Regardless of my preconceptions — and perhaps hubris — I quickly came to realize that scares can come at any time of the year.
“Hokum” follows a disgruntled, depressed American author, Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott), who travels to Ireland in order to scatter his parents’ ashes. During his visit, he stays at an antiquated hotel which, according to staff, traps a folkloric witch in its locked honeymoon suite. When Fiona (Florence Ordesh), an employee of the hotel, goes missing, Ohm decides to break in and search the haunted hotel room in order to solve the mystery of her disappearance.
Soon Ohm finds himself trapped in the honeymoon suite, where his goal of finding Fiona is quickly replaced with surviving the night.
In spite of the movie’s deceptively simple premise, “Hokum” is much more than meets the eye. Although it uses Irish folklore as inspiration, the film does not rely on paranormal elements as its sole source of horror. As Ohm spends the night playing cat and mouse with the sinister presence haunting him, he also finds himself unravelling the mystery behind Fiona’s disappearance. In a startling turn of events, her disappearance ends up having more to do with the hotel staff than it does with the entity lurking in the suite. Somehow, the child-luring witch that drags her victims into Hell is not the prime antagonist in “Hokum”.
This mix of human and nonhuman threats elevate the film’s horror elements and lead to an immensely tense viewing. As the mystery shrouding Fiona’s disappearance unravels, Ohm becomes threatened with more than just a scary witch in a basement, and he must turn to both natural and supernatural solutions to ensure his survival and escape the honeymoon suite.
Slivers of Ohm’s tormented past are scattered throughout the film, making his perspective both intriguing and a source of skepticism as viewers come to question whether Ohm’s perspective can be relied on. Watching events unfold through Ohm’s eyes creates a sense of disorientation and confusion throughout each supernatural, hallucinatory and, at times, soberingly grounded scene.
Everything from Ohm’s perspective, the mixture of mythical elements with real life tragedies and Scott’s terrific performance, leads to a fantastically thrilling and satisfying viewing experience. In retrospect, watching “Hokum” in the dead of spring may have been the perfect time to experience this bizarre, fascinating and, of course, terrifying film, with its scares creeping up on you when you least expect it. Wherever you are, whatever time of day it is, “Hokum” is sure to give you a fright.
Daily Arts Writer Ana Torresarpi can be reached at atorresa@umich.edu.
