It's become something of a cliché in recent times for almost every horror film that's released to be instantly labelled one of the scariest ever made.
Particularly in the two years since the hugely successful viral campaign for Osgood Perkins's Longlegs made that film a (deserved) hit, it seems as if studio marketing departments have gone into overdrive to amp up the fear factor of any slightly horror-adjacent movie in their slate. This often involves slapping ridiculously hyperbolic pull quotes on the posters and online promotional material that warn of true terror and sleepless nights to come.
I've lost count of how many films have been declared absolutely terrifying ahead of release since then – with Undertone (scary!) and Lee Cronin's The Mummy (visceral but not especially scary!) two of the most recent examples. And while we're undoubtedly living though an exciting era for horror, exemplified by the huge success of Sinners and Weapons this past awards season, there's perhaps a suggestion that the horror hype machine is doing a little too much.
Must everything be the scariest thing ever?
Anyway, this brings us to this week's new horror release, Hokum, another film that has already been the subject of some of those aforementioned claims of overwhelming terror. The third feature from Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy – whose terrific 2024 release Oddity is also well worth checking out – it stars Severance's Adam Scott as Ohm Bauman, an American author of some renown who has travelled to a remote inn in rural Ireland to scatter the ashes of his parents, who had spent their honeymoon there.
Surprise, surprise, it doesn't take long before it become apparent that everything is not what it seems in this unusual establishment, not least because Ohm immediately encounters the hotel's owner regaling two young children with a spooky tale of a Cailleach, an old Irish mythological witch.
Ohm – who has no truck with the supernatural – disdainfully dismisses any suggestion that something genuinely sinister is afoot, and won't accept the explanation that the hotel's honeymoon suite is no longer in operation because the aforementioned Cailleach has been trapped their for decades. But as his stay continues, and he encounters some mysterious folk and learns of an unexplained disappearance, he slowly has to face up to the fact that there is something not quite right.
View Green Video on the source websiteThe film is the latest addition to the canon of films that see a depressed writer staying in an eerie hotel – a canon headlined by The Shining, of course, but also including the Coen Brothers' superb Barton Fink. And by and large it's a great addition to that micro-genre, with Scott excelling as a not always especially likeable character who is gradually pulled into a chilling mystery.
But just how scary is it? Well, the first thing to point out is that writer/director McCarthy has a wicked sense of humour, so this is certainly not simply a relentless scare-fest – there's a great streak of black comedy running through the piece, especially whenever forest-dwelling hallucinogenic enthusiast Jerry (David Wilmot) is on screen.
But beyond that there is certainly an admirably creepy atmosphere sustained for much of the film, with no shortage of nightmarish imagery, an interesting exploration of its central character's troubled mindset and a well-informed grip on Irish folklore (as well as one or two scenes which some viewers may find distressing).
Meanwhile, as the film gets into its second half – and into that apparently haunted honeymoon suite – there are also plenty of jump scares, though none which quite match the impact of one in another upcoming release, Obsession. And we'll give no spoilers, but one scene that sees Ohm attempting to attract the attention of a would-be helper is a masterclass in controlled tension.
It all adds up to something which provides a nice portion of fear but also a sizeable amount of fun; for the most part it's truly an enjoyable film, especially to watch with an audience. So is Hokum up there with the most frightening films of all time? Not a chance. But is it the scariest of 2026 so far? It just might be!
Hokum is released in UK cinemas on 1 May 2026.
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