Hokum, 2026.

Written and Directed by Damian McCarthy.
Starring Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio, Ezra Carlisle, Mallory Adams, and Sioux Carroll.

Synopsis:

A horror writer visits an Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, unaware the property is said to be haunted by a witch.

In writer/director Damian McCarthy’s audacious haunted hotel ride Hokum (the follow-up to the filmmaker’s horror grab bag Oddity, which demonstrated a wealth of solid ideas that never quite fully came together, even if the result was undeniably atmospheric and spooky), Adam Scott’s seemingly celebrated writer’s-blocked Ohm Bauman hates happy endings and he is currently struggling to come up with his latest downer of a finale.  As the rest of the plot begins to kick in, one begins to wonder if Damian McCarthy will feel the same way. For a film eager to please with the occasional jump scare and familiar folklore, including witches and ghosts, the story itself is rather dark, with one harrowing revelation after another.

There is also a stroke of brilliance in casting Adam Scott, as the miserable novelist is amusingly a jerk to nearly everyone he comes across, pulling from his persona as a comedic actor, playing a character as miserable as the disturbing books he writes (he is working on something called The Conquistador Trilogy, and it seems to be popular enough with those around him recognizing his identity and wondering how it will end). It is also worth mentioning that a framing device shows glimpses of the creative process behind this ending, featuring a man and a young boy (Austin Amelio and Ezra Carlisle, respectively) stranded in a desert, facing harsh choices. Admittedly, this makes for a jarring opening (brilliant editing transitions notwithstanding), though by the end it becomes clear why these scenes are necessary to the overall narrative.

Nevertheless, Ohm has retreated to the Irish countryside hotel that was once a honeymoon for his deceased parents, possibly having delayed his wanting of spreading their ashes there while also hoping the setting will bring him some inspiration. As mentioned, he isn’t interested in making any friends, telling a bartender (Florence Ordesh) who is opposed to his cruel book endings that maybe she will enjoy one of the “shitty movie adaptations” sanitized with a happy ending (doubling as a humorous industry inside joke), brushing off a nearby homeless wanderer living in the woods (David Wilmot) speaking of potions made from goat milk that can open the mind into seeing and experiencing the supernatural, physically harming a fan bellhop (Will O’Connell) writing for free in his spare time (which the self absorbed author quickly puts down not being a real writer), and irritating other hotel staff.

Soon after establishing Ohm’s rude relations to these characters, there is a tragic incident that occurs that won’t be spoiled, both revealing more about the state of his mind while also pushing the story forward roughly two weeks, just in time for the hotel’s closing time for the season, and a mystery involving the disappearance of that aforementioned bartender. On the one hand, you see Damian McCarthy working overtime to find small contrivances and the machinations at work to get this plot into motion, with Ohm finding himself alone in the hotel at night to investigate, feeling guilty and partly responsible for what happened.

It takes a bit of time to accept that the film is rushing past something severe that just happened to the writer, transitioning into horror mode. Damian McCarthy still has some ways to go as a screenwriter, in that he overstuffs his movies with concepts and ideas that don’t always feel smoothly executed. However, that is more than made up for with otherwise confident storytelling, unafraid to gradually reveal the answers to major plot points fairly early on. Even having most of the information, how this will end is anyone’s guess, and part of what makes this such an electric fright show at times

By giving viewers answers to some of those other questions, it allows for greater focus on Ohm as a character and on his past, which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, riddled with trauma. Ohm also has to contend with a witch who may or may not be contained in the abandoned honeymoon suite, as he hopes to find traces of the missing woman, while also reckoning with the past and how it has negatively influenced who he is today and his nihilistic writing.

With unsettling reflection shots from the corner of a TV screen, a terrifying animatromic at one point divulging some back story, the sheer dread that comes from this isolation, other supernatural presences, some truly creepy production design spanning creepy miniature statues (sometimes homed in on to showcase their unsettling voyeuristic eyes) that play a part opening up other areas of the suite (parts of the film are akin to watching Adam Scott solving puzzles inside a Resident Evil game), and a tense sequence in which the novelist desperately tries to alert someone for help once he becomes locked in an area, the direction is strikingly confident, propulsively eerie, and certainly makes entertaining use of the numerous ingredients. Hokum is fiendishly fun without losing any sense of what it wants to say about its lonely, abrasive, troubled writer.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

Four awesome stars

If you watch more dark genre productions than anything else, then surely one of the characters will be less familiar to you than the other three. Fortunately, she does an excellent job, and as she’s the proverbial “straight man” in the comedy elements, it works perfectly fine if you have no prior knowledge of her work.

Her name is Lola Tung, and most will probably recognize her as the star from The Summer I Turned Pretty. However, it’s worth noting that she has another genre movie coming out in 2026. The next Osgood Perkins (Keeper) movie, The Young People, is expected to have a release date later in 2026.

So, while Lola Tung is moving into these genre productions, we have three other stars already doing well within our dark corner of entertainment.

One of them is a personal favorite of mine: Victoria Pedretti. From The Haunting of Hill House to The Haunting of Bly Manor (where she was the star), on to YOU and, most recently, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Victoria Pedretti just always makes everything better!

Rounding out the coven is the leader, played by Lili Reinhart, who was brilliant in American Sweatshop, and the fourth member, played by Alexandra Shipp, who played a title character in Tragedy Girls.

Also in the cast is Gabrielle Union (Breaking In), but you need to stay for the end-credit scene to actually see her. Before this, you only hear her voice.

Nearly five years on from its premiere, every morsel of information about Mike White’s addictive HBO series is still met with feverish excitement. And its upcoming fourth season is no exception: After previous visits to Hawaii, Italy and Thailand, the Emmy-winning series is checking into digs on the French Riviera, with its backdrop none other than the Cannes Film Festival.

Just as closely watched has been the string of starry casting announcements — and one very high-profile departure, Helena Bonham Carter, who departed the show shortly after production began. According to an HBO spokesperson, “With filming just underway on Season 4 of ‘The White Lotus,’ it had become apparent that the character which Mike White created for Helena Bonham Carter did not align once on set. The role has subsequently been rethought, is being rewritten and will be recast in the coming weeks. HBO, the producers and Mike White are saddened that they won’t get to work with her, but remain ardent fans and very much hope to work with the legendary actress on another project soon.”

The road to a new “White Lotus” season is always a twisty one, as executive producer David Bernad recently told The Envelope. He also shared details on the season’s themes, other key cast members and how the production plans to maneuver around tourists. Here‘s what we gleaned from our chat.

A bad French hotel restaurant experience changed everything: Bernad and White spent a week scouting in France but weren’t sold until one fateful night. “Mike and I went to meet a friend for dinner at a hotel in the South, which will remain nameless. The maître d’ was so rude and they called security on us,” says Bernad. However, once inside, the staffer continued to be dismissive of them and the show. “The whole season crystallized in that moment, and as we were leaving, Mike’s like, ‘I know exactly what we’re going to do and we’re doing it in the South of France.’ It was the most productive dinner I’ve had,” he says.

Other countries were in contention: Choosing each season’s swanky location is always a “conundrum,” says Bernad, who shared that he and White initially planned a multicountry European tour. “We were starting in France, then we were going to Spain, then Ireland. But once we had that moment in the South of France at that restaurant, Mike said, ‘I don’t want to see anymore.’ So the rest of the trip was canceled,” says Bernad.

Cannes and its history form the season’s backdrop: One of the show’s familiar sights during the first three seasons has been swelling waves dramatically crashing against rocks, but you’ll see something different in Season 4. “A lot of those shots will be replaced by Cannes, the city itself and the glamour of the festival,” says Bernad. Also, the focus won’t be confined to the present but also pay tribute to the past. “It’s also the storied history and glamour of the festival, and we’re going to be tipping our hat to French cinema throughout,” he adds.

Cast member Vincent Cassel at Cannes with “The Shrouds” in 2024.

(JB Lacroix / FilmMagic)

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The season’s theme is “really intentional”: Bernad says he’s known the Season 4 theme since they realized the hit show would be ongoing. “We’ve always had an idea that this season would explore the arts and fame, celebrity and the spiritual journey of being an artist, so we focused on countries that had a long relationship with the arts,” he says. Fashion’s influence is also key as “Dior permeates through the entire season,” he says, adding that French designers and artists are doing pieces for the show that lean into “the painful, existential journey of what it means to be an artist.”

No Hollywood star cameos: With Cannes as the backdrop, you might think A-listers like George Clooney or Anne Hathaway will be wandering through a “White Lotus” scene. Nope. “The show lives in the universe of ‘White Lotus’ so we’re not doing cameos, we’re not doing celebrity,” says Bernad. “In that universe, there are references to real people, but everything is its own world.”

Kumail Nanjiani is among the Americans in the international cast.

(Michael Buckner / Variety via Getty Images)

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The Season 4 cast is eclectic… and still evolving: Ironically, the exiting Bonham Carter was the first person cast for Year 4. “Mike always had her in mind as we started this process, and we built the cast around her,” says Bernad. While we wait for her revised character to be recast, an array of international artists are set to appear, including Brits (Steve Coogan and Dylan Ennis), Americans (Sandra Bernhard, Chris Messina, Kumail Nanjiani, Chloe Bennet, Ari Graynor, Heather Graham and Rosie Perez), French (Vincent Cassel, Corentin Fila, Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Laura Smet), Canadians (Alexander Ludwig), Norwegians (Tobias Santelmann), Swedes (Frida Gustavsson) and Australians (Caleb Jonte Edwards). It’s no surprise that multiple language interpreters will be on set, says Bernad.

One White Lotus hotel isn’t enough: “What’s cool and unique this season is there’s going to be two hotels so not everyone is staying at the same hotel,” says Bernad. In fact, while the White Lotus Cannes is a beautiful property — the Hotel Martinez in Cannes will be used for filming — the more coveted place to stay is the White Lotus du Cap, filmed at the Airelles Chateau de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez. “That starts to play into the theme and story about ego and narcissism and how we view ourselves as it relates to how the world views us,” explains Bernad, adding filming at Paris’ Mandarin Oriental Lutetia will also double for some of the Cannes action.

The Airelles Chateau de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez will stand in for the “White Lotus du Cap.”

(Jarry/Tripelon / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Filming in a high tourist area is a “Jenga tower”: Previous seasons were shot in more remote, secluded locations, but that’s not the case for the fourth season. “We’re shooting in the South of France during a very peak tourist time, and it has been the most challenging season so far,” says Bernad. “It’s like making a Jenga tower work with all the crazy dates in the South of France and things that are booked out.”

Production is the longest ever: Shooting at multiple hotels isn’t new for the show, but in previous seasons, “we would stay in a hotel and we would shoot it out and then we’d move on to the next hotel,” explains Bernad. This time, it’s more of a puzzle that will make Season 4 the longest production schedule ever for the show. “We’re going to be shooting, leaving and then returning [to properties]. We’ll shoot in the spring, and then we’re going to come back in the fall when high season’s over,” he says.

Besides a great hotel, another major factor exists in securing a location: Besides finding the perfect property that will look great on camera and lining up a variety of schedules, a “White Lotus” location “has to be a place we want to live for a year,” says Bernad. “Because it is a year and it is relentless work … I think Tanya [Jennifer Coolidge] says at one point, ‘At this age, you just want to feel comfortable,’ and that’s us.”