Hokum Review

By Ben Wright (@Iamzavagno | www.xgeeks.co.uk)

This review is spoiler-free.

It is safe to say that nobody is doing modern folk-horror quite as consistently well as Damian McCarthy right now. His previous films, Caveat and Oddity, were both easy five-star horror films for me personally, so Hokum was right up there as one of my most anticipated watches this year. Still, I went in a bit nervous, which probably says more about me than anything else.

This is McCarthy working with his biggest budget so far, although it is still modest in the grand scheme of things, and teaming up with a more recognisable lead in Adam Scott. And I will be honest, part of me did wonder if more money and a bigger spotlight might smooth off some of those rough edges that made his earlier films feel so distinct. That slightly scrappy, uncanny energy is a big part of why I love them. Two absolute favourites already, so three in a row felt like a big ask.

Well… turns out I did not need to worry. At all. The credits rolled, and I just sat there thinking, yeah, he has done it again.

Hokum still leans into supernatural and psychological horror, but folk-horror sits right at the centre of it, and it feels even more present here. The blend works surprisingly well. It starts off unsettling and just kind of stays there, quietly getting under your skin rather than doing anything flashy. It is not exhausting horror, either, more of a creeping feeling that something is off and you cannot quite settle into it.

That is the thing I keep coming back to with McCarthy. Yes, there are jump scares, and a couple got me good, but he is not really interested in that stuff as the main event. It is all atmosphere, tension, and that sense of something just out of frame. You will get a shot of an empty corner, and somehow it feels wrong, even though nothing is happening. He really leans into what you do not see, and it works.

Visually, this might be his most polished film yet, but it still feels like him, which is the important bit. There is one sequence where the camera angles slowly start to tilt and tighten in on the action, and it genuinely made me feel a bit uneasy in my seat. Not in a gimmicky way, just that slow “something is not right here” build. The cinematography, sound, and score all of it just feeds into that same mood without trying too hard.

Adam Scott is excellent as Ohm Bauman. What surprised me most is how unlikeable the film lets him be at the start. That is a risky move, especially in horror, where you usually want someone to latch onto, but it kind of pays off because it feels intentional rather than careless. Scott plays him with this mix of arrogance and quiet weariness, and as things start to unravel, you can feel him slowly cracking. It is one of those performances that gets better the longer you sit with it.

I was also glad to see David Wilmot involved, because he always brings something solid even in smaller roles. The rest of the cast all do their bit too. Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, and Peter Coonan all help flesh things out and make the world feel like it exists beyond just the main plot. Nobody feels like filler, which I really appreciated.

What stands out most, though, is how confident the film feels. There is no hand-holding, no constant explaining, no over-narrating every detail just in case you missed it. It trusts you to sit with it, figure things out, and maybe feel a bit uneasy in the gaps. And honestly, that makes the whole thing land harder.

Unsettling, tense, and genuinely eerie in a way that lingers after it ends, Hokum cements Damian McCarthy even further as one of the most interesting horror directors working right now. Some films fade as soon as you leave the cinema. This one sticks around in your head a bit longer than you want it to.