SXSW ‘Hokum’ Review: You Will Be Afraid of the Dark After This Adam Scott Film
5/5 creepy clocks
Horror often finds itself in a hard place among fans. The seasoned horror fan will take a lot more convincing to make them scream in terror while watching a new film. But Damian McCarthy’s Hokum will have you cowering behind any surface. In my case, my SXSW badge. I wish I was kidding.
Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is a horror writer who is struggling to finish his novel, working through a dark epilogue that leaves no room for hope. But when he embarks on a journey to honor his dead parents, he finds himself captured in his own horror story. The hotel where his parents had their honeymoon serves as his own house of horrors in a twisted kind of folklore.
McCarthy’s use of one terrifying room leaves audience members gasping and whispering “absolutely not” at every turn. Or that’s what you heard if you were sat anywhere near me. Yes, some of the terrifying moments pray on childhood fears like the fear of the dark, what looms in the shadows, or creepy bunny men telling you that you’re worthless.
But Hokum as a film works as a character study on grief and understanding how your own pain can consume you. Horror as a genre is often diminished to its scare value. Did this movie terrify you? Was it gory? But the real joy within the genre comes from its ability to explore hard themes, like grief and blame. McCarthy uses the genre to build something special with Hokum‘s core themes and allows Scott to have one of the most breathtaking performances in a horror movie.
Adam Scott proves himself as a horror king
With his role in the movie The Monkey, fans of Scott were shocked to see him tackle horror. To be fair, he’d done it before with movies like Krampus but The Monkey was on a different level. Now, with Hokum, he showcases his ability to bring his comedic timing to a character who is just as douchey as Derek from Step Brothers, but for a much better reason.
The evolution of Ohm as a character would have easily been played for laughs or ignored all together. Scott, however, made his growth something captivating to watch. He wasn’t a one note man and even when we were in a cycle for the character (ie: trapped in one space), it was still fascinating to watch what Ohm would do next.
It is rare that a horror movie captivates a room in the way Hokum did. Hiding behind things, terrified of what was going to jump out of the shadows, and again, just hating that bunny, there were moments within Hokum that truly made me feel as if I was going to die right then and there in that delicious way that only horror movies know how to do.
Hokum is the kind of horror movie we all need. And it proves McCarthy’s place as one of the kings of the modern age of horror stories. Just….maybe don’t go into a haunted hotel after watching this one.
(featured image: Neon)
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