00:00Adam Scott is checking into a hotel that he might not be checking out of in the horror film,
00:04Hocum. Scott plays the author of a successful series of conquistador books, who travels to a
00:09hotel in Ireland that his parents visited on their honeymoon to spread their ashes.
00:13When the hotel's bartender goes missing, Scott starts to believe that it may have something to
00:16do with the closed-off honeymoon suite, which is believed to be haunted by a witch. Hocum is the
00:21latest from Irish writer-director Damien McCarthy, who previously helmed Odyssey, and like that movie,
00:26it mixes elements of mystery with the supernatural, and this time adds elements of folklore to the mix.
00:33It's pretty clear that a big inspiration for Hocum is Stephen King, because when you think about a
00:37writer in a hotel in the off-season, your mind is inevitably going to wander to The Shining. But
00:41if anything, Hocum has much more in con with 1408, especially during the second half, which is largely
00:46based around Scott being trapped alone within the honeymoon suite, as a sceptic who starts to
00:51experience the paranormal, and his own fears reflected back at him. And Adam Scott's writer
00:56has plenty of his own demons, especially from his childhood, which explains why he's an extremely
01:01misanthropic and bitter fellow, as we see when the movie opens with him writing a very fatalistic
01:06ending to his series, which shows his state of mind. Scott's sardonic comic chops makes his
01:11grumpiness amusing at times, but some viewers might not find his character particularly sympathetic,
01:16even if the movie is ultimately about confronting that. What I thought McCarthy does especially well
01:21is balancing the tone. It's got plenty of scares, but it can also flip from darkly funny to deadly
01:27serious quite quickly, but it's only jarring on purpose, because this has such a strong focus on
01:33character. McCarthy is also very good at building atmosphere, especially in the later sections with
01:37dumbwaiters and creepy underground pastures, but even before then there's a sense of unease in the
01:42outside attention that American tourist Scott faces from a cast of colourful locals. There's some
01:48escape room style ingenuity as Scott tries to follow the clues while trying to find a way out,
01:53and the jump scares are fairly frequent and effectively timed, although rarely truly scary.
01:59But it's that mystery element that I think works well to elevate the horror tropes and keeps it
02:03compelling with some unexpected plot turns, and I do think it might appeal to those who aren't
02:08usually fans of these kind of films, so long as they're not too easily spooked. As usual with a lot
02:14of
02:14modern horror films, HOKUM arrives slightly overhyped with the latest scariest movie ever marketing,
02:20but it's a pretty clever haunted house movie that's good fun with the right crowd.
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