Hokum 2026 Review: I Wanted to Love Hokum, But Couldn’t

Neon knows its audience and has been coming up with films that have us stumped for years. From the looks of the trailer, Hokum was one of them, but it seems now that it didn’t meet the highly set expectations. 

Here is our version of the Hokum 2026 review that would give you an overview of why we think Hokum didn’t hit the mark.  

Plot details of Hokum (2026)

Adam Scott plays the horror novelist, Ohm Bauman, who visits a remote Irish inn to scatter the ashes of his parents. He heard the tales of a witch haunting the inn trapped in the honeymoon suite, whose terrifying glimpses have been seen in the trailer before. 

One of the hotel’s staff mysteriously disappears, and this takes him on a journey of finding the truth. It takes him to the honeymoon suite, where the hair-raising truth unravels. 

Watch the trailer here:

Actors’ performances in Hokum (2026)

Scott portrays a cocky writer who misbehaves with one of the hotel staff members. He has made a shell of overconfidence around him, though he is a victim of guilt, due to which he can’t complete his novel. It is his captivating performance that keeps us hooked throughout the film. 

Though most of the film is about Scott’s Ohm, Peter Coonan as Mal and David Wilmot as Jerry were also convincing in their roles. The undercurrent of unease in Mal makes him a typical supporting figure whose one mere wrong action turned the entire direction of the story. 

On the other hand, Wilmot’s Jerry was quiet and unsettling sometimes, still giving the natural authenticity that made the slower scenes believable. People thought he was crazy, but we wanted to listen to him in those stretched, dialogue-heavy scenes. 

What do critics add to Hokum 2026 review?

The critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes approves highly of the film, as it says,

“A classic haunted house story enriched with atmospheric folklore and perfectly-timed shocks, Hokum further solidifies writer-director Damian McCarthy as a modern master of horror.” [Source]

The critics agree that McCarthy has created something truly creepy, as it blends Irish folk horror and Scott’s performance into one of the best horror movies of the year so far. They found the sound design and cinematography “brilliant” as they made the experience unnerving throughout.

They believe the intelligence of the classic horror codes and witchcrafty vibes of the film made the film feel fresh. Some of the critics found the story going astray, but overall, the slow unfolding of the tension elements was applauded.   

Fans’ reaction

Despite the overall audience score being quite high, they found the film boring, the acting okay, and the story “sketchy.” The viewers also compared it to Silent Hill, as great execution made the horrific circumstances feel alive. Overall, they found the jump scares legit and the film completely heavy on mystery. 

Is it worth watching?

Hokum is worth watching at least once since it has Adam Scott (Severance series). Though the film had multiple loopholes, they could be intentional from the director to possibly leave room for a sequel. For example, I couldn’t get answers to the main questions of the film: Where did the witch come from? Why did the owner of the inn trap her inside the hotel’s abandoned honeymoon suite? What happened in the honeymoon suite? Did the witch have something to do with the suite? Was the owner connected to the witch once? 

There has been a mystery surrounding Ohm’s intake of the spiked whiskey, which was made by Alby. Alby was the bellboy whom Ohm was rude to at the beginning of the film, and Alby wanted to have a bit of revenge by adding mushroom powder to his drink. However, this leads us to think: was everything Ohm said in the honeymoon suite real or the result of the spiked drink? I believe it could be real, since other people mentioning the witch could not have made it up. I’m sure not everyone was under the influence of mushrooms. There was something sinister in that place. 

Otherwise, the film utilizes the protagonist’s trauma and uses it as horror against him. Though when the trailer was released, the horrific, ugly rabbit face terrified the hell out of me, and I was actually looking forward to watching Damian McCarthy’s masterpiece, but I suppose it was a disappointment for me. 

Psychological dread was there, but I couldn’t see the characters grow. There were only personal gains of the hotel staff that turned out to be the real fright in the story. Humans turning against humans is probably the main message that the director wanted to send out, but it didn’t quite resonate with me. 

The mystery and spooks exist, but a special pull into the story was missing for me. I feel the folklore hasn’t been explored as it should have been, which could have added layers of dread. The film, at the moment, tries to be superficially intense, comfortably sitting on the shoulders of Adam Scott to bring more fire and fervor. Clearly, that wasn’t enough.   

What we liked

• Adam Scott’s performance
• Atmosphere and cinematography
• Sound design

What could be better

• The story leaves too many unanswered questions
• Uneven pacing
• Weak emotional depth
• Folklore elements could have been explored more deeply
• Underdeveloped script 

Here is a detailed breakdown of our rating for Hokum (2026)

Story/plot	5/10
Characters and acting	6/10
Direction and pacing	6/10
Visuals and cinematography	6/10
Soundtrack/score	6.5/10
Themes and message	4/10
Emotional impact	3/10
Creativity/originality	4/10
Rewatchability	2/10

Our rating: 5/10

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Is Hokum (2026) available for streaming?

Neon distributes Hokum (2026) (R-rated) in cinemas from May 1, 2026, onwards. It is soon expected to be available to stream on platforms like Hulu, Amazon Prime, or Apple TV.  

Genre: Body horror, folk horror, psychological horror, supernatural horror, witch horror

IMDb rating: 7.3

Rotten Tomatoes: 89 percent on Tomatometer (critics’ score) and 83 percent on Popcornmeter

Cast: Adam Scott, David Wilmot, Peter Coonan, Austin Amelio

Director: Damian McCarthy

Writer: Damian McCarthy

Producers: Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Derek Dauchy, Ruth Treacy, Julianne Forde

Release date: May 1, 2026

Movie runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes