Hokum sees Adam Scott portray a less likable character than viewers are used to.
Known for his lighter roles in films and television shows like the romantic comedy, Sleeping with Other People, where he appears alongside Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie, or the cult-classic, Parks and Recreation, where he plays the hilarious Ben Wyatt, a state auditor turned city manager, and, most recently as the relatable and self-deprecating Mark Scout, in the Apple TV+ thriller, Severance, Hokum marks a real departure for Scott, with his Ohm Bauman described as a bit of a “jerk.”
Inspired loosely by Disney’s Pinocchio, the film follows Bauman, a popular author who travels to a hotel in Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes. Dealing with a mix of writer’s block, grief, and some childhood trauma, Bauman is hopeful his stay at the remote Bilberry Woods Hotel will bring him the peace he’s so desperately seeking, but it’s there that he’s met with the discovery that the hotel he’s staying at is haunted by a witch. While he initially brushed off the staff’s tales as just a simple folk superstition, dismissing and insulting just about everyone who works at the inn, it’s not long before Bauman realizes that something is very wrong.
ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan spoke to Scott about what it was like to go from playing the “lovable” characters his decades-long career has been marked by, to taking on the role of a “d—head” in the folk horror film.
For Adam Scott, Playing A Jerk In Hokum Was “Freeing”
Playing someone “irredeemable” like Bauman was not only a departure for Scott, it was also “freeing” to be able to behave badly and get away with it — at least at the film’s start. Bauman’s short temper and cold demeanor come out early on in the film when he loses it on bellboy Alby, who tries to make conversation with him. After Alby mentions being a fan, Bauman reacts by aggressively heating a spoon over a candle and pressing it into Alby’s hand.
Adam Scott: It is sort of freeing, because you don’t have to worry about, particularly in a script like this, where it’s part of what I loved about it. I thought it was kind of a courageously written character. The lead of the movie is going to be irredeemable for the first several scenes. And it is freeing to be able to treat someone like that with no repercussions whatsoever, at least not yet. So it was really fun. And Will coming in there as the bellboy, and just being so earnest and so excited, he’s almost inviting it. So it was fun in sort of a sadistic way.
He’s also seen being rude to other members of the inn’s staff, including a barmaid named Fiona. Bauman’s repercussions don’t come till a little later, though, when he’s confronted with his own dark past, the witch whose existence he so vehemently denied, and Jack the Jackass, played by Will O’Connell, who also plays Alby.
ScreenRant also spoke to the film’s director, Damian McCarthy, who detailed his decision to incorporate the twist of fate that sees the freakish figure who Bauman first torments as Alby, deliver some of that karmic punishment back to him.
Damian McCarthy: He’s very mean when they meet. So, I thought then that when Adam’s character is being punished later on, it would be nice if Will, as Alby, was one of these things that’s part of that torment.
Horror Movies That Inspired Scott And Hokum Director Damian McCarthy
When it comes to what inspired the film, McCarthy previously told ScreenRant at SXSW in Austin, Texas, that Hokum is largely motivated by John Carpenter and the films The Thing and They Live, as well as other horror movies from the 1980s.
Damian McCarthy: The film is, in general, it’s always going back to John Carpenter. The Thing and They Live. For this one in particular, it was anything where it’s a guy trying to survive the night. Evil Dead II or something like a siege movie, where it’s one guy just battling one thing after another to try to make it to dawn. A big mix of stuff, really. A lot of the 80s, and I always kind of go back to that, just because there’s something kind of timeless about it. I think with our film, too, even the setting and the time, and exactly when this takes place, are quite vague. There’s no real technology in the movie, and there’s a mix of costumes, and the car’s all kind of old. I like that. I’ve done it in my other two films as well. There’s something about it that, on some level, kind of throws the audience off a little bit.
As for the films that scared them the most, McCarthy and Scott had interesting responses, ranging from Ringu to a 1970s thriller.
Damian McCarthy: When I first saw Hideo Nakata’s Ringu — The Ring, they remade it as — and when Sadako first comes out of that TV, it was terrifying. It was absolutely so simple. And it’s not even like a jump scare. She’s making her way across the whole screen, and then climbs out, and I was like, “That’s amazing.” That’ll never be topped in terms of, for me anyway, as a horror image.
For Scott, it was something less traditional than your horror jump scare, with the Step Brothers alum telling ScreenRant that there’s a scene from Dustin Hoffman’s 1976 thriller Marathon Man that remains imprinted in his mind to this day.
Adam Scott: I think for me, the scene in Marathon Man, where Dustin Hoffman’s in the bathtub, and people are breaking into his apartment, and you can’t see what’s going on. He just sees some shadows under the door, and he can hear whispering. I saw it at probably too young an age, and it’s kind of haunted me my whole life.
Check out more of our Hokum coverage here:
Hokum is in theaters now.
- Release Date
-
May 1, 2026
- Runtime
-
101 Minutes
- Director
-
Damian McCarthy
- Writers
-
Damian McCarthy
- Producers
-
Derek Dauchy, Mairtín de Barra, Roy Lee, Julianne Forde, Steven Schneider, Ruth Treacy
