'Hokum' Director Reveals Chilling New Details That Completely Transform That Ending

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Published May 2, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Hokum.]

Summary

Collider's Perri Nemiroff chats with Damian McCarthy and Adam Scott for Hokum.
Scott discusses the most challenging scene to pull off from page to screen.
McCarthy reveals new details about the witch and shares what she says down in the tunnels.

From the filmmaker who brought us one of the greatest original horrors of the 2020s, Oddity, writer-director Damian McCarthy returns to the big screen with a brand-new story to raise the hairs on the back of audiences’ necks. This time, Severance star Adam Scott stars in a chilling fairy tale gone wrong with Hokum.

In the movie, Scott plays Ohm Bauman, a prickly novelist who travels to an isolated inn, hidden away in the Irish countryside, to scatter his parents’ ashes. While talking with the locals, Ohm uncovers eerie details about a supposed witch that haunts the inn’s off-limits honeymoon suite, but he’s unimpressed by the area’s folklore. That is, until the hokum becomes a little too real after the disappearance of one of the inn’s employees brings Ohm face-to-face with his own demons.

With Hokum now playing in theaters, don’t miss this interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, where McCarthy reveals the secrets behind his twisted tale, including the details that inspired the design of the witch, and what she said to Ohm down in the tunnels. Scott also discusses the most challenging scenes to bring to life from script to screen, working alongside McCarthy to realize their vision, and the spooky details you might have missed. You can watch the full conversation in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.

This Unforgettable Character Finally Unlocked 'Hokum'

"It was definitely the hardest script I’ve written."

PERRI NEMIROFF: Damian, I always love hearing about how ideas evolve. What would you say is the biggest difference between draft one of this screenplay and the finished film?

DAMIAN MCCARTHY: It's a lot simpler, I guess. You start off with these things, and you throw everything and the kitchen sink into it. You've so many ideas, and then just over the process of writing the film, it just becomes about trying to simplify it. And I guess if anything, it ended up being that the goal was to tell a very simple story, but with a complicated character. That was kind of, I think, where I ended up.

Did you have a break story moment of sorts with that? Something you came up with, or maybe something you took out given the value of simplifying it, that made you think, “We've really got this now?”

MCCARTHY: It's funny, I was writing this, and it was definitely the hardest script I’ve written. It seemed to take two-plus years and went through so many drafts. I knew I wanted it to be about this character, and just trying to punish him over the course of this night, and there was still just something missing, and it wasn't working.

But it felt like when the character of Jerry, David Wilmot’s character, came into it, it was like, “Okay, he actually needs a little bit of help to survive this night.” And it injects a little bit of hope, or maybe somebody could come to rescue him, because if it's just him, there really is no way out without some kind of a deus ex machina, something coming in at the end to solve it. So yeah, I think introducing that extra character seemed to seem to crack it.

I love that. I can't imagine the story without Jerry, so I'm very glad you included him!

MCCARTHY: [Laughs] Yeah, he’s great.

Adam, I'm going to get to all the stuff this narrative put you through in a moment, but first, this might be too hyper-specific, but when I hear a movie's title said in a film, I tend to hyper-fixate on that. So, did you do that? Did you do what I'm doing right now and really think through how you said “hokum” in that particular scene?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, for sure, because you don't want it to be a corny moment, right? You don't want to lean in too hard to something like that, so I thought it was important. Damian had written it as sort of just offhanded, slapped down, just a dismissive comment, so that really helped that I didn't have to make some grand pronouncement with it.

Adam Scott Breaks Down the 'Hokum' Scenes He Couldn’t Visualize

"That's really when it solidified for me, and got really, really, exciting."

Now, to open it up to the entire movie, going into filming, which particular scene did you think was going to be the toughest for you, and ultimately, was it, or did a different one catch you by surprise?

SCOTT: What I thought was going to be the toughest and the one I had the least visual sense of was the end where I'm on the bed, and I've drawn a circle around it, and the witch is sort of taunting me, and clearly can't cross the line. I didn't have a real sense of how we were going to do that and how I was going to pull that off emotionally. I had not formed it in my mind.

So on the day, it was really fun to get in there with Damian and see him map it out for me and sort of clarify everything. And it ended up being one of the clearest moments, and such an important moment in the movie, as everything sort of leads up to this moment where Ohm is finally taking a stand against this and acknowledging the reality of his situation. It's sort of a breaking moment for the character.

You just said that you had a conversation with Damian about it that helped you crack that scene and be able to visualize it. Do you remember anything he told you that put that all into focus the way you needed it?

SCOTT: You know, it was less a conversation. It was actually us on the set that day, like physically working it out, and I was like, “Oh, right. Of course. Okay.”

But also, the stuff in the basement, I love it in the movie. It's so terrifying. Peter Coonan being dragged in there while I'm on the ground, that was all beautifully written, but I wasn't sure how it was going to be pulled off. And so seeing Damian get in there and figure it all out and sort of walk me through it, that's really when it solidified for me, and got really, really, exciting.

The Witch of 'Hokum'

McCarthy talks mushrooms, myths, and translations.

I'll stick with the topic of designing things and come back to you, Damian, to talk about your witch. When I hear there's going to be a witch in a movie, I know you can go down so many different paths in terms of designing the look of a character like that. So, can you tell me how this particular look came to be, and if there was any trial and error or evolution of that design?

MCCARTHY: There was a little bit. Because a mushroom trip features quite heavily in the film, a lot of her design, layers, it was always coming back to mushrooms, even with Lara [Campbell], the costume designer, and Jenny, who did the hair, and Eve who did the makeup. Lots and lots of just different species of mushrooms, and looking at that and seeing, “Is there a way to weave this into her color, into the texture of her skin, into her hair?”

I thought it would maybe hint a little bit, like, “Is she really there? Is this actually happening? Is this something that whatever's in his system is creating?” And again, with that, it was also to lean into your very typical fairy tale look of a classic witch. We’re not trying to invent anything brand new. It's like, no, let's actually go with that classic design on top of all of the mushroom angle.

I don't know if you want to spell all this out for me, but I was curious if you could share any of the witch translation. This is the one that I've grown a little obsessed with so maybe specifically, what she tells Ohm at the end when she walks past him in the basement.

MCCARTHY: I think it's, “He's waiting for you,” as in the devil. “The devil is going to take you.” And I think she says to Peter, “You're the father,” as if she knows, like, “Oh, you're the father.” As if she's already been talking to Fiona. She has kind of a little bit of a running commentary, even like when she reaches him at the bed after drawing the circle around the bed. It’s like, “What are you after drawing here?” She's kind of saying all this stuff out loud. My Irish is absolutely terrible. If you’d spoken to me as a child, I’d be much better, but I won’t attempt it. [Laughs]

SCOTT: I have a theory that the witch really likes Ohm.

Damian, can you tell us a little bit about working with your cinematographer, and also editor, to figure out how much to show of the witch and maybe other entities and scares, but without showing too much?

MCCARTHY: We shot a lot more with her. Even like, I think, that first scare with Alby. She's right at the edge of exposure in the darkness before she steps back. We shot a whole other segment of that where she appears in this jump scare, right next to him, and it's a full close-up.

It's nice to have those in your back pocket when you're editing. It's like, “Yeah, let's get it and have it,” and then it's all about just trying to hold back as much as possible. That's very much with Colm [Hogan]’s lighting in terms of trying to keep her ever so slightly underexposed, trying to hide her.

And then with Brian [Philip Davis], once we get into the edit, then it's very much, “How do we just tease her but never give it away?” And all of that is just to make it so much more frightening for the audience because they’ve got to use their imagination.

'Oddity' Review: A Supernatural Horror That Will Tear You To Pieces

Yeah, you should definitely stick your hand in the mouth of the perpetually screaming wooden man.

Damian, with all of your movies, I love scouring every single frame for cool objects and potentially haunted objects, so I'll give you two questions about that. Damian, can you tell me a little bit about working with your production designer to fill in the spaces with eye-catching and meaningful props, and then for both of you, did each of you have a favorite little detail?

MCCARTHY: I worked with Til Frohlich and his team, the production designer, and again, Paul McDonnell, who built my wooden man in Oddity. Between those two guys, it was very much either building stuff or finding things at second-hand shops or markets or whatever, just things that look like they had a lot of history and they’ve just been up there for years getting covered in dust. Everything in it just needed to feel like there's a little bit of a story behind this.

It very much does! So, a favorite now. I don't know if you took anything from set, but if each of you could snatch up one little prop and bring it home, if you dare, what would it be?

MCCARTHY: I took everything. [Laughs]

I should have expected that from you!

MCCARTHY: I loved the clock. I love that haunted clock with the little cherub on top. It seems like he's kind of messing with Adam's character at times. It seems like he's going to be an ally, and then he starts not really cooperating. I thought that thing was pretty cool.

SCOTT: I didn't take anything, but I should have. I love the cherubs, and I love the close-ups that Damian really gets on the cherubs, because their facial expressions, am I wrong that they change?

MCCARTHY: They do! We have a couple.

SCOTT: So, like Damian says, you think they're on Ohm’s side, but they end up being sort of a neutral party and messing with both sides and not really rooting for anyone. But they're frightening to look at, particularly if you hold on them. And Damian, is it true that you made a larger version of them so you could get good close-ups?

MCCARTHY: We did. Because the little guy on top of the clock that hits the button, they're so small, even trying to get in there and shoot that macro, you're not really getting that detail. So, it was just decided with Paul, “Let's build a couple of bigger ones.” So we have fist-sized heads and then a few bigger, so when you take that close-up, you really get that kind of cheeky little smile that he's giving to the audience.

Hokum is in theaters now.