SXSW 2026 Film Review: Hokum

Following his breakout success with the terrifying Oddity at 2024’s SXSW, Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy returns to the festival this year with Hokum, a deeply unsettling folk-horror film starring Adam Scott (Severance). 

Set at a remote hotel in Ireland, Scott plays Ohm Bauman, a disturbed horror writer who visits the hotel to spread the ashes of his parents in the area where they spent their honeymoon. Rude and obnoxious to the staff and guests, Ohm makes it clear that he wants to be left alone to write, until he meets the bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh). 

Feeling obligated after an unforgettable interaction (best kept vague to avoid spoilers), Ohm returns to the hotel to thank Fiona, who has gone missing since his visit. Clearly realizing something strange is afoot, Ohm demands to search the hotel, including the locked room that is supposedly haunted. 

While Hokum follows a relatively familiar narrative (especially for those well-versed in folk-horror), Damian McCarthy once again constructs a beautifully terrifying landscape that gnaws at our deepest fears. Reuniting with Oddity Director of Photography Colm Hogan, the pair construct a number of unforgettable set pieces that expertly showcase our collective fear of the dark and long, empty (?) spaces. 

Hokum features one of the best Adam Scott performances to date as the troubled writer at the heart of the story dealing with his deep-set family trauma, and McCarthy proves that he is one of the best modern horror filmmakers working these days.

See it in the darkest theatre possible.

Hokum is in theatres on May 1, 2026.