Review: 'Hokum' finds fresh scares lurking in the shadows of an old Irish hotel

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No fooling, “Hokum” is a fabulous horror film for all tastes.An American novelist named Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) journeys to rural Ireland to mark the completion of his best-selling “Conquistador” trilogy.Bilberry Woods, his hotel, claims a witch is locked inside the honeymoon suite where, decades ago, Ohm’s now-dead parents celebrated their marriage.

He’s come this far to sprinkle his folks’ cremated ashes at the only place he can picture them happy.Any other tourist might be scared to stay in a witch-infested inn.But Ohm is such a misanthrope that he’d never go to a cheery beach resort.

To prove it, the writer-director Damian McCarthy opens his movie with the epilogue to Ohm’s latest book, a desert death trek with a Spanish treasure hunter (Austin Amelio) and his desperately thirsty child guide (Ezra Carlisle).The bleak tortures Ohm concocts for his characters are as vile as the Bilberry’s fetid jacuzzi.And Ohm’s cruelties aren’t merely fictional.

Just wait till you see how he abuses an awkward bellboy (Will O’Connell) who dares to pipe up that he’s a fan.For good measure, Ohm also traumatizes the barmaid, Fiona (Florence Ordesh), by the end of his first night’s stay.Here, witches are real — and so are jerks.

McCarthy’s script pairs supernatural monsters with human ones.The villainy isn’t coordinated, but more like a feedback loop of evil.

Ohm’s fix is partially his own doing.Although the film never comes out and says it, Ohm was possibly conceived on these unhallowed grounds, so maybe he was just born cursed.

Still, Scott plays him as such an anemic, cold-blooded creep that it’s impressive “Hokum” gets us rooting for his survival when the people he’s offended would just as soon see him burned at the stake.Movies We’ve mapped out 27 of the best movie theaters in L.A., from the TCL Chinese and the New Beverly to the Alamo Dra...