Adam Scott Stars in Hokum, Damian McCarthy's Haunted Irish Hotel Horror
adam scott stars as Ohm Bauman in Damian McCarthy’s new horror movie Hokum, which opens Friday. The film places him in a haunted Irish hotel and gives the role an unusual hook: a novelist finishing his conquistador trilogy while dealing with a family errand that brings him back to Ireland.
Ohm Bauman at the hotel
Ohm Bauman travels to scatter his long-deceased parents’ ashes near the hotel where they had their honeymoon, and the trip puts him inside a setting the review describes as green, damp, and full of antiquities that feel charming and creepy at once. That mix gives Scott a lead role with more texture than a standard genre walk-through.
He arrives at a small hotel and quickly insults nearly every employee he meets. The only person he treats with any warmth is Fiona, the young bartender played by Florence Ordesh. That contrast makes the character easier to read: Ohm is not just wandering through a ghost story, he is actively making the room worse from the moment he steps into it.
Damian McCarthy's opening sequence
The first few minutes move far from the hotel, starting beneath a bright blue sky in an expansive desert. A Spanish conquistador played by Austin Amelio appears in armor with a little boy beside him and a map in his hand, a prologue that pulls the movie away from the usual locked-room setup before it settles into Ireland.
McCarthy’s choice to open that way gives Hokum a less predictable shape than a straight haunted-house entry. The desert image, the conquistador figure, and the hotel arrival suggest a film that is building its mood from clash as much as from atmosphere, with Scott carrying the story after the opening shifts back to the present-day setting.
Friday at the Irish hotel
Friday gives the film its first real test with audiences looking for a new horror release built around a recognizable lead and a location that is doing more than serving as wallpaper. For Scott, the part extends him into a prominent horror role without softening the edge of Ohm Bauman, who is introduced as a famous novelist in the middle of finishing a trilogy and already alienating the staff around him.
The setup is lean, which is part of the appeal: a novelist, a death-related trip, a hotel with history, and a director willing to begin with a conquistador in the desert before dropping the action into a haunted Irish property. If Hokum works, it will be because McCarthy uses that friction instead of smoothing it out.
