‘Hokum’ Poster Welcomes You… Whether You Like It or Not

Adam Scott (Severance) stares straight into a kaleidoscopic nightmare on the haunting new key art for Hokum.

From writer-director Damian McCarthy (Oddity, Caveat), the horror film checks into theaters May 1 via Neon, promising a twisted dive into memory, grief, and the supernatural.

Scott plays reclusive novelist Ohm Bauman, who retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes. But the inn holds more than quiet solitude: staffers whisper of an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite, and soon the tales begin to twist Ohm’s mind. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance pull him into a nightmarish confrontation with the darkest corners of his own past.

The ensemble cast includes Peter Coonan (The Alienist: Angel of Darkness), David Wilmot (Station Eleven), Florence Ordesh (Departure), Michael Patric (Frontier), Will O’Connell (Game of Thrones), Brendan Conroy (Bodkin), and Austin Amelio (The Walking Dead).

Production comes from Roy Lee (Weapons) and Steven Schneider (Insidious) of Spooky Pictures, along with Image Nation’s Derek Dauchy (Late Night with the Devil), Tailored Film’s Ruth Treacy, Julianne Forde, & Mairtín de Barra, and Cweature Features’ Ken Kao & Josh Rosenbaum. Executive producers include Ben Ross (Late Night With the Devil), Dan Kagan (Longlegs), Rami Yasin (Late Night with the Devil), and Andrew Childs (The Long Walk).

SXSW reviewer Meagan Navarro gave Hokum a 4.5-skull rating, writing: “McCarthy dangles close to the precipice of bleakness, but ultimately rewards with a magical story about storytelling and the ability to heal. Hokum just also happens to be really freaking scary.”

Rated R for “some violent/disturbing content and language,” Hokum promises a nightmare where grief, folklore, and a sinister inn collide — and Ohm Bauman’s sanity hangs by a thread.