Richard Crouse

SYNOPSIS: In “Hokum,” a new folk horror film now playing in theatres, Adam Scott plays an author whose trip to Ireland takes a supernatural twist.

CAST: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Michael Patric, Will O’Connell, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio. Directed by Damian McCarthy.

REVIEW: “Fado, fado… Long, long ago… Deep in the woods… There lived… An old Cailleach… A witch.”

“Severance” star Adam Scott is Ohm Bauman, a misanthropic American author of the best-selling Conquistador series of novels. Prone to fits of drunkenness and cruelty, he’s travelled to Ireland to finish his new novel and find personal closure by spreading his parents’ ashes in a forest near their favorite place, the remote Bilberry Woods Hotel. “My folks came here for their honeymoon,” he explains, “and always wanted to come back.”

He quickly manages to alienate the quirky staff, including handyman Fergal (Michael Patric), concierge Mal (Peter Coonan), bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh) and owner Mr. Cobb (Brendan Conroy).

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” he says, “but there are some oddballs walking around this place.”

“There are worse things than strangers out there, yank,” Mr. Cobb replies grimly.

His curiosity peaked by whispers of an ancient witch the inn’s owner has trapped in the honeymoon suite, he investigates the locked room after one of the inn’s workers disappears on Halloween night.

Inside the room he has terrible visions that compel him to explore his troubled past.

“You do know these things exist,” says local pariah Jerry (David Wilmot). ”It’s just closed minds can’t see them.”

From dead animals and darkened hallways to creepy carved Halloween gourds and things that lurk in the shadows, there is a cloak of unease that hangs over the movie even before the action officially starts.

Director Damian McCarthy subliminally weaves dread into the film’s fabric. The simple haunted house story is elevated with classic but skillfully employed slightly off kilter camera work, which emphasizes empty space and the hotel’s many shadowy corners. It sets up a disquieting atmosphere of unease that pays off when Bauman’s investigation on to the mysterious, claustrophobic hotel room begins.

It’s then that the little details, a harmless chiming clock, the draping around the four-poster bed, become sinister without the aid of CGI creatures.

The monster here isn’t the Honeymoon Suite Witch, it’s the long-lasting effects of trauma and the consequences of immoral human behavior.

The atmosphere is so thick it almost distracts from Bauman’s unlikability. Almost, but not quite. Scott plays the writer as persnickety and pretentious, broken and bitter, without ever overplaying his hand. Casually cruel, he’s not a moustache twirling baddie, just a narcissist with a mean streak.

When the room forces him to confront his past, vulnerabilities shine through, but he never breaks character. He doesn’t suddenly become likable or sympathetic. He remains a pain, and Scott keeps the performance as layered as the horror McCarthy creates with his camera and setting.

“Hokum, even though the mid-section feels a bit stretched, is the real deal, a movie that is genuinely unsettling.