"Hokum" - Parks and Recreational Drugs

Upon a visit to Ireland to scatter the ashes of his parents, grouchy and curmudgeonly prick of an author Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) finds himself stuck within the walls of the quaint countryside hotel with his own dark past, and that of the hotel. Is it magic, or much more mundane?

(Photo credit: IMDB)
Somewhat wonderfully, the trailers are far different to the actual experience here, and not in a disappointing "Dead Man Down" kind of way. Man when was the last time you heard "Dead Man Down" in a sentence? Anyway, the film is less "Longlegs" or ghost story, and more an unpredictable kind of folk horror and character piece, sharply written as it focuses on the backstory of Ohm (played wonderfully by Scott: channelling Ben Wyatt if he had been through a miserable divorce and lost custody of his children), giving compelling reasons for him being at the hotel (complete with a few neat, unavoidable nods to "The Shining" along the way) and having him honestly make all of the best decisions he can when it all starts going wrong... It feels as if it lacks confidence in its scares early on, relying on jump-chord violen cliches rather than letting the otherwise excellent scares (figures in the background, a rightfully terrifying bunny man who'd be all over the marketing in a lesser film, wisely used sparingly) but once it settles into its groove and has trust in both itself and the audience it soars. It's more spooky and interesting than out and out terrifying like "Undertone" was (still the benchmark for horror this year) aside from an absolutely brilliant, fucking nightmarish lift sequence and aforementioned videotape, but I was gripped by the film even before that so it was clearly doing something right. Tight, sharply written, clever and concise, it ends nicely too.
Great time.