Every once in awhile you come across a movie so good, you instantly add the director’s name to your mental list of “well, whatever they do next, I’m definitely gonna be watching.” We had such a moment last year with Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy, whose Oddity had an award-winning festival run, a theatrical release, and then went to streaming via Shudder—but we still feel like not enough people were exposed to its nightmarish delights. His next movie, however, should remedy that under-the-radar issue now that Adam Scott has signed on to star.
According to Variety, the Severance star (known mostly for his comedy chops, but whose horror bona fides include Krampus, Little Evil, and Hellraiser: Bloodline—as well as a small but memorable role in Osgood Perkins’ upcoming The Monkey) will lead the cast of Hokum, McCarthy’s next project. He’ll play “a horror novelist who visits a remote Irish inn to spread his parents’ ashes, unaware the place is rumored to be haunted by a witch.”
Adding to the horror ingredient list, Hokum will be produced by the team of Image Nation and Spooky Pictures, which scored a huge indie horror hit with last year’s Late Night With the Devil.
Anyone who saw Oddity or McCarthy’s 2020 feature debut Caveat (also worth seeking out) knows the director has a knack for psychological horror that then bleeds into supernatural terrors. Oddity followed a woman determined to figure out if her twin sister’s sleazy husband had something to do with her murder, and tapped into her collection of occult objects (including a truly distressing-looking life-sized wooden man) to help uncover the truth. It’s still haunting us months later, and Scott’s character better be ready, because there’s no way Hokum‘s witch tale is merely a rumor.
According to Variety, Hokum will begin filming on location in Ireland this month, with Peter Coonan (Bad Sisters, Peaky Blinders) and David Wilmot (Bodkin) also part of the cast.
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Source: Gizmodo