A Twisty Ghost Story

    Hokum has many elements to attract horror fans: a creepy house in the Irish countryside, a local legend about an evil witch, and it begins on Halloween, complete with carved turnips placed around said spooky house. Though it starts as a typical ghost story, Hokum ultimately proves to be not only that, but also a smart, twisty horror film with some excellent creep factor and more than a couple of surprises.

            Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott), a best-selling author of some note, travels to Ireland to finish the final book in a successful trilogy and leave his parents’ ashes at a tree at the hotel  they went to for their honeymoon many years ago. He learns early on of a local legend about a witch who is apparently trapped upstairs in the honeymoon suite, which no one is allowed to stay in.  After a failed suicide attempt in his room, Ohm is drawn into searching for Fiona, a bartender at the hotel who found him, saving his life, who has gone missing. From there, the movie is one part whodunnit and one part spooky ghost story.

            When we meet Ohm, he’s kind of, well, an asshole – pedantic, judgmental, and extremely rude – the kind of character who often “gets theirs” in a film such as this. However, over the course of the movie, we learn more about Ohm and his tragic past, which, while perhaps not excusing all of his jerkiness, at least explains some of it. He’s a complicated guy, and the only person he seems to make any connection to is Jerry, a local eccentric who lives in the woods, enjoys his magic mushrooms, and becomes a prime suspect in Fiona’s disappearance, the two of them working together to clear his name and find out what really happened.

            The plot elements – spooky Irish house, Ohm’s search for reconciliation with his past, and the search for Fiona, seem disparate, and frankly they are, but writer/director Damian McCarthy keeps the audience hooked with a creepy tone and a gradual reveal of what’s going on in the hotel, pulling the rug out from beneath the viewer right when they think they know what’s going on. Minimal locations and cast with some generally creepy moments, Hokum ends up deserving the praise it received from the viewing public.