‘Hokum’: Director Damian McCarthy On Haunted Hotels, Folk Horror Roots, and His Next Film [The Discourse Podcast]

Director Damian McCarthy really loves to hit that dread button, and in “Hokum,” he absolutely wears that thing out. Not with loud shocks or cheap jolts, but with the kind of slow, creeping unease that just sits there, staring back at you. The longer you watch, the more it feels like the movie isn’t escalating so much as tightening, quietly, deliberately, until there’s nowhere left to go. Then he slaps you across the face for good measure. READ MORE: ’ Hokum’ Review: Adam Scott Is Haunted By A Hotel Full Of Scares, Death, & Secrets [SXSW] Written and directed by McCarthy, “Hokum” stars Adam Scott , Peter Coonan , David Wilmot , and Austin Amelio . The film follows novelist Ohm Bauman, who retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, only to become consumed by stories of a witch tied to the hotel’s honeymoon suite. Disturbing visions and a sudden disappearance begin to fracture whatever control he has left, forcing him to confront a past that doesn’t stay buried. On this episode of The Discourse , McCarthy joins the podcast to break down how “Hokum” came together, why he stripped the story down rather than build it out, and how he balances supernatural horror with something far more immediate and human. The starting point was as simple as it gets.

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‘Hokum’: Director Damian McCarthy On Haunted Hotels, Folk Horror Roots, and His Next Film [The Discourse Podcast] is an episode from The Playlist Podcast Network by The Playlist.

This episode is 00:26:09 long.

This episode was published on Apr 30, 2026.

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