Hokum Trailer: Adam Scott's Supernatural Horror Movie Looks Exceptionally Creepy

The first full trailer for Adam Scott's upcoming horror movie "Hokum" has arrived, and, suffice it to say, we're preparing to assume the fetal position. The film is written and directed by Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy, who delivered a good old fashioned scary movie with "Oddity" in 2024. Now, he's teamed up with Neon, the same company that brought us one of the most terrifying horror movies of 2024 in "Longlegs," to deliver what looks set to be a similarly horrifying experience with "Hokum."

A teaser for the movie appeared in December 2025, and it followed the rubric established by "Longlegs" and its genius marketing campaign. That is to say, it didn't reveal a whole lot beyond palpably creepy vibes, which is exactly how a horror movie should announce itself. We do know some details about the plot of "Hokum," which revolves around an author traveling to a remote part of Ireland to spread his parents' ashes. But much like with "Oddity" and McCarthy's 2020 effort "Caveat," Adam Scott's writer character will be menaced by some sort of unspeakable evil.

McCarthy shot his previous two films in a converted barn in Ireland, and "Hokum" was also shot on location in West Cork, though it's unclear if the infamous barn will make a return. For now, we have the new trailer, which promises yet another glimpse into a nightmarish netherworld that will surely haunt us all for years to come.

Whew, the folks at Neon sure know how to market a horror movie, don't they? This is an incredibly effective trailer, and Damian McCarthy has proven he has a knack for creating deeply disturbing imagery (like whatever the heck is going on in the image above, which flashes briefly at the very end of the trailer). Some of that imagery is repeated throughout McCarthy's work; there's an old rabbit doll from his first film, "Caveat," that made its way into "Oddity," and the long ears in that photo have us wondering if it might pop up in some form in this movie, too.

Similarly, "Oddity" features several references to a physical bell that looks awfully close to the one we see in the "Hokum" trailer, and a character in "Oddity" tells the following story:

"There was a man, not a very pleasant one, who spent most of his life working as a bellboy in a hotel. And one night, he was showing a drunk guest to his room, and the guest shoved him down the stairs, and he broke his neck, and he died in the fall. And a few days later, the receptionist rang the bell to summon the new bellboy, only who did she see running towards her, not looking very happy?"

The idea is that ringing the bell brings about the return of the ghoulish bellboy, and spoilers for the end of "Oddity," but when a character rings the bell at the very end of that film, we see the ghoulish bellboy appear in the flesh.

Is this the same bellboy who appears in the "Hokum" trailer, or does McCarthy just like the idea of recurring imagery? Perhaps we'll get an answer when "Hokum" hits theaters on May 1, 2026.