Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Michael Patric, Will O’Connell
Where to watch: In theatres
To watch or not to watch: Flawed but strong horror movie from Ireland. It is turning the genre around in interesting ways
Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is a borderline alcoholic author living alone in the US, struggling to finish a book which appears to be about the lack of humanity in diversity, probably a reflection of his own conscience. While writing at night in almost darkness, and slightly inebriated, he feels visited by his dead mother’s ghost. He rifles through the limited keepsakes, finds a picture, and assuming his mother was happy in that time and place, he decides to take his parents’ ashes to Ireland, checks himself into the hotel where his parents honeymooned, and meets the hotel staff members – Fergal (Michael Patric), the groundskeeper, and Mal (Peter Coonan), the desk clerk and the son-in-law of the hotel owner. He goes to scatter his parents’ ashes, and meets a happy-go-lucky homeless man named Jerry (David Wilmot), who offers Bauman moonshine while he himself partakes of milk with shrooms to “open his mind”. Bauman, uncharacteristically, is nice to Jerry and is grateful for the alcohol (obviously). He returns emotional and resumes his drinking in the hotel bar, while Fiona (Florence Ordesh) pours him drinks and listens to him sympathetically. Bauman is haunted by his childhood when his mother was shot in the face by an intruder when Bauman was 10, and his bitter father drunk himself to death. They talk about the locked Honeymoon Suite in the hotel, where he believes his parents stayed, but which has been locked up since the hotel owner trapped a witch inside. Then Alby (Will O’Connell), the bellhop enters, who expresses his ambition to be a writer, whom Bauman insults to no end, going as far as burning Alby’s hand, and Fergal pushes Bauman to go back to his room. A little later, Fiona goes to Bauman’s room to return his tape recorder, and when Bauman doesn’t open the door, because he has attempted suicide by hanging, Fiona and Alby save his life. On being discharged, Bauman learns that the hotel is closed for the off-season and Fiona has disappeared, and Jerry is suspected of her disappearance. Bauman feels grateful to her for saving his life, and wants to do a good turn to her by finding her. Jerry and him break into the hotel and go upto the honeymoon suite, where Jerry is shot by a crossbow, and Bauman is trapped inside, and he learns the truth about the whole situation, while also drinking whiskey from his old flask.
While watching the movie, it will seem to be a simple plot about a grumpy, lonely author in a remote B&B/hotel/what-have-you, trying to finish his book while battling his inner demons. Since Hokum has limited characters, and doesn’t dwell too much on plot development, on the surface it seems to be falling into the formula. As you can see from the paragraph above, it is longer than average. And that’s ok, because the focus of the movie remains on the story and the build-up to the crux and the resolution, but the movie would have benefited from a little more backstory, maybe worth 2 minutes extra, and removing the same 2 min fat from a few scenes which do not really do much to the storytelling. This movie is director Damian McCarthy’s third, after unfairly under-acclaimed Oddity (read its review here), and it was supposed to be a spin-off from it. The majority of the movie is shot within the hotel setting, and it is shot so beautifully that when the scene changes to the hospital, it is a subconscious physical relief – such is the skill of the cinematographer Colm Hogan. And the best part? The subtlety of the setting. Not the writing, but only the cinematography. The writing has a few moments where it is quite on-the-nose and would have benefited from the audience’s subconscious interpretation of the emotions present. Then we move to the second almost-half where it goes to the place we were all eager to see. That is literally going to leave the viewer with jitters.
McCarthy is turning out to be one in the league of Creggor and Peele, creating solid horror movies one after the other. Or maybe more in the league of the Philippou Brothers, as he created movies from Irish folklore. In fact, he is doing something more to the genre, exploring it beyond the supernatural or foreign or psychological, to mystery. Oddity was a scary murder mystery with a sprinkling of supernatural, and Hokum is similar. This is the experimentation which is going to be the saviour of the craft of filmmaking. And now let us spare a moment for the actor, Adam Scott. In a movie which already has limited characters, Scott has a disproportionately high screen time. And he smashes in conveying his emotions as if the audience his him, he is the audience. And that is because the centre of the movie is not the starring of an acclaimed Hollywood actor, but the story. Always. Looking forward to more from McCarthy.
This is not a movie for the faint of heart, definitely a must-watch for horror lovers.
To see or not to see 