What Is Hokum About?
The premise of Hokum in 273 words, with nothing given away. The full story and the ending follow below.
Bestselling novelist Ohm Bauman arrives at the remote Bilberry Woods Hotel in Ireland seeking solitude, but he carries a heavy burden. Struggling to finish the final installment of a popular trilogy and mourning the tragic deaths of his parents, Ohm hopes the rustic setting will provide the clarity he desperately needs. His visit is intended to be a quiet pilgrimage to scatter his parents’ ashes at a specific redwood tree, but the atmosphere of the inn is anything but peaceful. Managed by the stern Mr. Cob and populated by eccentric locals, the hotel is rife with whispers of a local legend—a witch said to haunt the honeymoon suite, preying on the lost and the weary.
Ohm initially greets these tales with cynicism, dismissing them as the very “hokum” he despises in lesser storytelling. He finds the locals’ fear of the woods and the locked suite to be an amusing distraction from his writer’s block. Yet, the strange behavior of the groundskeeper Fergal and the warnings from bartender Fiona begin to chip away at his skepticism. As he explores the grounds and the surrounding wilderness, the line between his own psychological stress and external threats begins to blur.
When unsettling visions begin to mount and a sudden disappearance disrupts the quiet of the inn, Ohm is pulled into the mystery against his will. Is the witch simply folklore, or is there a darker truth hiding behind the locked doors? Forced to confront the darkest corners of his own past, Ohm must determine if the terrors he faces are supernatural manifestations or the product of a mind fracturing under the weight of guilt and grief.
What Happens in Hokum?
The complete story of Hokum, from the first scene to the last, in 1,159 words (about 5 minutes). Spoilers throughout. Names in the text link to 8 cast member pages.
Spoilers ahead
Two travelers pushing through a harsh desert horizon—the air dry, the ground cracked—find their pace slowed by thirst and fate. A battle of will unfolds between a lone conquistador and a small boy as a red circle marks their path in the sand. The man clutches a bottle carrying a rolled scroll, trying to smash it open, while the boy aids in digging with a rock and pushing toward some unseen destination. The conquistador, gripping the edge of doom, blurts a desperate line: > “it can’t end like this.” The moment twists in on itself, revealing that the desert sequence is not a grim finale but the pages of an epilogue for a book by Ohm Bauman, Adam Scott, a celebrated writer who is wrestling with endings while typing at his desk.
From that realization, the story shifts from sun-bleached dunes to rain-soft Ireland as Ohm Bauman spirals into the heart of a real-world mystery. He searches through his parents’ belongings and uncovers a pistol and a card from The Bilberry Woods Hotel, tempting him to visit the place where their memories linger. Upon arrival, he meets Fergal, the hotel’s steadfast groundskeeper, Michael Patric. The hotel itself carries a sense of living memory, a place where guests tell tales to keep fear at bay. The owner, Mr. Cob, Brendan Conroy, recounts a chilling local legend of a witch haunting the woods, preying on the lost and dragging travelers toward shadows beyond the door. Two small children listen with wide eyes, and Ohm quietly warns them not to speak with strangers.
As Ohm checks in, Mal, the front desk clerk, Peter Coonan, recognizes his name and asks about a signed copy for his son, a request Ohm declines in a quiet defense of his own work and distance. At the bar, Fiona, the hotel bartender, Florence Ordesh, guides him toward the hotel’s secrets, asking where the “big redwood” is—a tree that holds a photo of Ohm’s mother. When he finds the tree and lays down his parents’ ashes inside its hollow, the weight of history presses in again. Leaving the ashes, he begins a walk through the haunting woods and meets the Boy, Ezra Carlisle, and the enigmatic Jerry, David Wilmot, who sips milk laced with magic mushrooms and buries a goat, creating an atmosphere of uneasy, underground signaling.
The bar becomes a stage for Ohm’s struggle with his own story. He pitches an ending where the conquistador fails to kill the child, only to walk into a bleak desert and die, but Fiona pushes back, calling it too grim. As they talk, Ohm reveals the sorrowful truth behind his parents’ story: his mother was murdered, and his father drank himself to death in the wake of that tragedy. Fiona probes for details about the honeymoon suite, a room rumored to be haunted by a witch who can trap the unwary, and Mr. Cob’s reluctance to part with the key hints at a deeper secrecy. The bellhop Alby, Will O’Connell, shares a hazy memory of having seen the witch, a tale Ohm dismisses as a tall tale.
As the night deepens, Fiona discovers Ohm’s wallet and tape recorder, and soon Ohm’s world tilts toward catastrophe. He learns that Fiona has gone missing, with the police tying Jerry to the case after a decade-long disappearance surrounding his wife’s death. Fergal recalls Fiona speaking with Jerry, casting suspicion in two different directions. A web of secrets tightens around the hotel as Ohm’s life becomes entangled with Fiona’s, Jerry’s, and Mal’s tangled loyalties.
In a devastating revelation, Jerry confesses to killing his wife in a mercy-driven euthanasia, insisting Fiona is only a friend, and that the police won’t believe him. He speaks of Fiona’s ghosts and a stolen key that could unlock the honeymoon suite. Ohm agrees, and the two attempt a late-night break-in, but their intrusion is interrupted by Fergal. Jerry is knocked unconscious and loaded into a van, leaving Ohm alone in a place where every shadow seems to whisper answers. Inside the suite, Ohm experiences visions of his parents and a creeping sense of foreboding, including a rabbit-faced figure on a children’s TV program that seems to speak directly to his guilt and fear.
Ohm winds through the hotel’s catacombs, aided by a mysterious map that appears to point toward fire exits in the basement. He finds Fiona’s tape again, in which she claims she is pregnant with Mal’s child, a truth that shatters the hotel’s already fragile lies. The tape becomes a beacon in the darkness, a message of survival even as the physical space grows more claustrophobic and menacing. He follows the signal and discovers a chalk circle in which he can shield himself, a primal defense against the witch who stalks the corridors and the hidden underworld beyond the hotel’s floors.
Back in the upstairs corridor, Mal returns and finds Jerry rampaging toward the honeymoon suite to reach Ohm. In a moment of grim calculation, Mal murders Jerry with a crossbow, setting the hotel aflame to cover his crime. He chases Ohm through the basement as smoke thickens, and the witch’s presence becomes all too real. Ohm, desperate to escape, draws another chalk circle and waits. The ghost of his mother appears briefly, offering permission to leave the past behind, while the witch drags Mal toward the hotel’s underworld, leaving Ohm to slip away with a blade that once cut his chains in the suite. The building burns, and the rescue arrives when Fergal returns to pull Ohm from the smoke-filled ruins.
In the aftermath, Ohm lies in a hospital bed, grappling with the cost of truth and the fragile mercy of second chances. Alby, the bellhop, visits with a sense of remorse for what his actions—spiking Ohm’s flask with mushroom powder—have wrought. He brings a photograph of Ohm’s mother beneath the tree, a reminder of roots and memory. Ohm, weighed down by bruises from the chains he wore in the suite, begins to write again, shaping a new ending for his conquistador tale. The final pages reveal a nuanced choice: the conquistador refuses to kill the child, and together the two choose a different fate—the bottle is broken by the child, not by violence, and the two share a moment of quiet redemption that closes the loop on the desert’s ominous circle.
As the credits drift toward resolution, the characters’ fates settle into a balance of consequence and grace. Fiona and Jerry’s bodies are recovered, Mal remains missing, and Ohm’s creative closure finds him moving forward with a new sense of purpose. Alby presents Ohm with the last image of his mother’s tree, and Ohm, in a gesture of reconciliation, accepts the gift and folds it into the life he is rebuilding. The closing lines of Ohm’s revised ending breathe a softer, hopeful cadence: the conqueror and the child coexist in a moment of mutual care, and the bottle’s scar disappears as they embrace their shared future.
Hokum Timeline: Every Key Event in Order
12 key events in the order they happen, from “Desert epilogue pages revealed” to “Fire, revelation, and the ending”. 12 events name a place, across 12 locations.
- 1
Desert epilogue pages revealed
A Spanish conquistador and a small child trek through a desert with dwindling water. They uncover a red circle in the sand and a bottle containing a rolled scroll; the man attempts to smash it, but the bottle won't break against the sand. The scene reveals that this desert sequence is actually the pages for Ohm Bauman's book epilogue.
Where:Desert
- 2
Ohm writes and senses a visitor
Back in the present, Ohm Bauman works on an ending for his popular trilogy. He looks up and seems to glimpse a woman standing in the shadows on his stairs. The moment hints at a supernatural intrusion into his life.
When:Present Where:Ohm's study
- 3
Old box sparks a trip to Bilberry Woods
Going through his deceased parents' belongings, Ohm finds a gun and a card from The Bilberry Woods Hotel in Ireland. He decides to visit the hotel to explore their past and perhaps find closure.
When:Days later Where:From home to Bilberry Woods Hotel, Ireland
- 4
Hotel lore and a warning about the woods
At Bilberry Woods Hotel, Ohm meets the groundskeeper Fergal and the owner Mr. Cob, who tell a scary tale about a witch living in the woods. Cob claims the witch preys on the lost and preys on travelers. Ohm and the staff exchange wary exchanges about the place.
When:First visit Where:Bilberry Woods Hotel, Ireland
- 5
Check-in and a question about the redwood photo
During check-in, Mal recognizes Ohm and declines to sign a book for his son. Ohm asks the front desk about the big redwood where his mother has a photo, hinting at a personal connection to the hotel and its grounds.
When:First night Where:Front desk, Bilberry Woods Hotel
- 6
Ashes to the redwood
Ohm goes to the large redwood tree and pours his parents' ashes into the hollow of the trunk. He leaves the containers with his parents' names tucked inside the hollow as a symbolic gesture to connect with them.
When:First night Where:Big redwood tree outside the hotel
- 7
Woods encounter with Jerry
On the way back through the woods, Ohm encounters Jerry, a local who is drinking milk laced with magic mushrooms and burying a goat. Jerry offers Ohm moonshine and hints at danger lurking in the hotel.
When:Evening Where:Woods near the hotel
- 8
Bar talk about endings and family history
In the hotel bar, Ohm pitches his ending where the conquistador attempts to break the bottle by killing the child, but fails and dies. Fiona thinks the ending is too bleak. Ohm reveals more about his family, including his murdered mother and his father who drank himself to death.
When:Evening Where:Hotel bar
- 9
Fiona finds Ohm's materials and a tragic turn
Fiona finds Ohm's wallet and tape recorder and goes to his room, concerned. She discovers that Ohm has hanged himself. Weeks later, Ohm awakens in a hospital and is brought back from the brink.
When:Late first night to weeks later Where:Hotel room; Hospital
- 10
Return to Bilberry Woods and the missing person
Ohm returns to the now closed Bilberry Woods Hotel to retrieve his things. He learns Fiona is missing and that the police suspect Jerry. Fergal notes that Fiona was seen talking to Jerry before she vanished.
When:Weeks later Where:Bilberry Woods Hotel
- 11
The secret in the honeymoon suite
That evening, Ohm and Jerry attempt to access the honeymoon suite. Jerry is knocked unconscious by Fergal and taken away. Ohm discovers Fiona's body hidden inside the dumbwaiter and listens to a tape where Fiona reveals she is pregnant with Mal's baby, a revelation that intensifies the mystery.
When:Evening Where:Honeymoon suite and hotel basement
- 12
Fire, revelation, and the ending
Mal reappears and shoots Jerry as the hotel catches fire, while Ohm is forced to confront the truth of Fiona and Mal. Fergal rescues Ohm from the burning building, and Ohm later finishes the ending of his conquistador tale with a surprising twist: the child breaks the bottle on the conquistador and embraces him. In hospital, Alby visits and brings a sense of closure as Ohm writes the final pages.
When:Aftermath Where:Hotel, then hospital
Who Are the Main Characters in Hokum?
11 characters, among them Fergal (Michael Patric), Jerry (David Wilmot) and Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott): who each one is and the part they play in the story. Every profile links to the actor’s page.
-
Fergal (Michael Patric)
Played by Michael Patric
A weathered Irish groundskeeper at The Bilberry Woods Hotel who knows the place's secrets. He appears cautious and protective, guiding Ohm through the hotel’s strange atmosphere and later assisting in the ongoing struggle as the building burns. His practical, steady presence contrasts with the room's hidden dangers.
- 🏞️ Local
- 🧹 Groundskeeper
- 🛡️ Protective
-
Jerry (David Wilmot)
Played by David Wilmot
A local with a troubled past who drinks mushroom-laced milk and buries a goat. He becomes entangled in Fiona's disappearance and claims to know Fiona’s ghostly trajectory, raising suspicion around the hotel’s events. His insistence on a supernatural narrative escalates the tension and culminates in a violent confrontation.
- 🕯️ Complex
- 🥃 Local
- 🔬 Suspicious
-
Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott)
Played by Adam Scott
A successful writer trying to craft the ending to a popular trilogy. Ohm is emotionally wounded by his parents' deaths and his own guilt, which drive his increasingly unstable behavior. His journey through the hotel’s mysteries becomes a meditation on storytelling, memory, and the possibility of redemption.
- 🖋️ Writer
- 🧩 Trauma
- 🌀 Metafiction
-
Conquistador (Austin Amelio)
Played by Austin Amelio
A vision of a Spanish conquistador who embodies the book’s allegorical struggle with fate and mercy. He attempts to break the bottle to end the story, but ultimately is spared in a twist that reframes violence as mercy. The character functions as a narrative mirror for Ohm’s struggle with endings.
- 🏜️ Desert
- ⚔️ Conquistador
- 🗡️ Allegory
- OM
Ohm's Mother (Mallory Adams)
Played by Mallory Adams
A spectral presence whose murder created the trauma at the core of Ohm’s life. Her ghost appears to offer guidance, acknowledging Ohm’s guilt and urging forgiveness. Her memory anchors Ohm’s emotional arc and fuels the drive toward an ending that reconciles past with present.
- 👁️ Ghost
- 💔 Mourning
- 🕊️ Guidance
- M(
Mal (Peter Coonan)
Played by Peter Coonan
A calculating, dangerous figure connected to the hotel’s darker history. He manipulates events to keep Fiona from escaping and ultimately murders her ally Fiona’s boyfriend? He opposes Ohm’s quest for a humane resolution and ends up confronting a supernatural reckoning as the hotel burns.
- 🗡️ Antagonist
- 🕵️ Manipulative
- 🔥 Dangerous
- C(
Cob (Brendan Conroy)
Played by Brendan Conroy
The hotel owner who exerts a chilling, controlling presence. He blocks access to the honeymoon suite and embodies the hotel’s sinister mythology. Cob’s authority masks deeper, more treacherous motives and his fear of external scrutiny shapes the hotel’s perilous atmosphere.
- 🏨 Owner
- 🧭 Mysterious
- 🔒 Controlling
- AJ
Alby, Jack (The Jackass) (Will O'Connell)
Played by Will O'Connell
The bellhop who both idolizes Ohm’s writing and incurs Ohm’s scorn. He is a conduit to Ohm’s experiences inside the hotel and a participant in the events’ surreal, dreamlike quality. His vulnerability and attempts to connect through writing add a layer of youthful hope amid the horror.
- 🧒 Bellhop
- 🎨 Aspiring writer
- 🗣️ Insecure
- B(
Boy (Ezra Carlisle)
Played by Ezra Carlisle
A young traveler in the hotel who contributes to the eerie, childlike atmosphere. His presence underscores the motif of innocence within a place of danger, and he serves as a contrasting counterpoint to the adults’ burdens and betrayals.
- 🧒 Child
- 🌀 Echoes of innocence
- 🕳️ Mystery
- F(
Fiona (Florence Ordesh)
Played by Florence Ordesh
A hotel guest who is pregnant with Mal’s child, making her a focal point of jealousy, power, and survival within the hotel’s haunted social web. Her disappearance and the subsequent revelation of her death drive the investigation and deepen the sense of peril in the hotel.
- 🤰 Pregnant
- 🧩 Mystery
- 👀 Ghostly presence
- W(
Witch (Sioux Carroll)
Played by Sioux Carroll
A legendary figure tied to the hotel’s folklore and the woods beyond. The witch embodies the fear of being hunted and the underworld’s pull, appearing in visions and in the hotel’s unsettling, supernatural atmosphere. She represents a moral reckoning for the characters’ actions.
- 👻 Mythic figure
- 🌿 Woodland lore
- 🕸️ Supernatural
Where and When Is Hokum Set?
Hokum is set in Desert journey, Bilberry Woods Hotel (Ireland) and Hotel in the woods. Here is why the place matters to the story.
Where
Desert journey, Bilberry Woods Hotel (Ireland), Hotel in the woods
The opening sequences unfold in a harsh desert where a Spanish conquistador and a child are running out of water, signaling a mythic, liminal space. The main action centers on The Bilberry Woods Hotel in Ireland, a remote, atmospheric destination where the writer Ohm Bauman seeks an ending and encounters a string of eerie, interconnected events. The woods surrounding the hotel act as a liminal threshold between reality and dream, with the underworld and witch figure intruding into the narrative.
- 🏜️ Desert
- 🏨 Hotel
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
What Are the Themes of Hokum?
4 ideas the story keeps returning to, among them Narrative, Trauma and Folklore.
-
01
Narrative
The film is built around storytelling as a living, mutable force. Ohm Bauman uses the ending of a popular book trilogy as a device to probe truth, memory, and guilt, while the desert vision and hotel sequences blur lines between fiction and reality. The pseudo-epilogue framing and Metafictional chat with characters like Alby highlight how stories direct our actions and destinies.
-
02
Trauma
Trauma threads through Ohm's past and present: the murder of his mother, his father's decline, Fiona's pregnancy and subsequent disappearance, and the guilt that drives Ohm to confront a haunted past. The hotel becomes a crucible where buried memories surface, manifested as visions, ghosts, and a dangerous dynamic among the inhabitants. The chalk circle and protective devices symbolize attempts to contain emotional danger.
-
03
Folklore
Witchcraft, legends, and hokum drive the eerie atmosphere. The local myths—of a witch in the woods, haunted honeymoon suites, and messages from the afterlife—serve as both menace and redemption. The film blurs folklore with psychological horror, turning superstition into a tangible force that shapes characters' fates.
-
04
Redemption
The narrative pivots on mercy versus violence. The Conquistador arc ends not in murder but in an unexpected act of mercy, reframing doom as a possibility for grace. Mal's malice collides with a supernatural reckoning, while Ohm’s last act of freeing himself and choosing life marks a reluctant, hard-won redemption.
How Does Hokum End?
The last act of Hokum and what it means, in 380 words. The ending lands as bittersweet. Big spoilers: read the plot summary first if you have not seen it.
The final act, in full
The conclusion of Hokum shifts the film from a conventional ghost story into a poignant exploration of guilt and redemption. While the narrative builds tension around a terrifying witch trapped within the hotel’s bridal suite, the entity is revealed to be less of a villain and more of a personification of death itself—a force of nature that cannot be bargained with, only momentarily evaded. The true antagonist is revealed to be Mal, the hotel manager, whose calculated cruelty in murdering his pregnant lover, Fiona, contrasts sharply with the tragic accident that haunts the protagonist, Ohm. Mal’s complete lack of remorse seals his fate, as he is ultimately dragged to a hellish end by the witch, serving as the narrative’s ultimate judgment on those who refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.
Ohm’s survival, conversely, is earned through his willingness to finally confront his past. Throughout the film, he is tortured by the repressed memory of accidentally killing his mother with his father’s gun as a child, a tragedy that has stalled his life and fueled a deep depression. In the film’s emotional climax, captured by the witch and facing certain death, Ohm is confronted by the spirit of his mother. His sincere apology and subsequent forgiveness break the hold of his trauma, allowing him to escape the witch’s lair. This act of contrition is the key to the film’s happy ending; it distinguishes Ohm from Mal, proving that while everyone carries scars, those who face them with humility can find a way forward.
This internal transformation is mirrored perfectly in the fate of Ohm’s fictional “Conquistador” trilogy. The story is bookended by his struggle to write the final chapter, which initially features a bleak, nihilistic ending where the protagonist dies in the desert after killing his companion—a clear reflection of Ohm’s own suicidal mindset. However, following his ordeal and his emotional catharsis, Ohm rewrites the ending. The revised conclusion sees the Conquistador choosing life and apologizing to the boy, signaling that Ohm has reclaimed his own will to live. By turning down the whiskey he leaned on earlier and politely engaging with the bellhop he once insulted, Ohm demonstrates that he has stepped out of the shadow of his guilt, turning a horror story into a tale of second chances.
What Kind of Film Is Hokum?
Dark in tone, with variable pacing and a complex story, going by the plot summary.
- Tone
- Dark
- Pacing
- Variable
- Story
- Complex
- Intensity
- High
- Ending
- Bittersweet
A haunting and atmospheric psychological horror that explores profound grief through unsettling supernatural encounters, creating a tense and melancholic journey toward a hard-won redemption.
- atmospheric
- haunting
- melancholic
- suspenseful
- claustrophobic
- introspective
- grief and loss
- supernatural horror
- psychological trauma
- creative process
Content notes: murder, suicide, mercy killing, child endangerment, psychological trauma, supernatural horror.
Quiz
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Where to Watch Hokum
Rent or buy it from Amazon Video and Apple TV Store. US availability and prices from JustWatch.
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