From witches haunting the basement, to rabbit-humans who will stay ingrained in your consciousness, this recent horror will make even the most experienced horror-fanatic sit on the edge of their seat.

Trigger warning: Mentions of suicide, murder, mild spoilers

Damien McCarthy’s most recent horror instalment, Hokum, is a tense and petrifying experience from start to finish. From witches haunting the basement to rabbit-humans who will stay ingrained in your consciousness for the foreseeable future, this recent horror has everything that will make even the most experienced horror-fanatic on the edge of their seat.

But one of the most compelling elements of the film is the guilt that our protagonist, Ohm Bauman feels for the death surrounding his life.

Ohm Bauman, portrayed by Adam Scott, is an American author struggling to complete the final installment in his Conquistador series. After being haunted by his mothers ghost, he decides to take a trip to the Bilberry Woods Hotel in Ireland, where his parents had their honeymoon, to try and complete the book.

Whilst at the hotel he learns of the local Irish folklore that lives in the woods surrounding the building from hotel worker Fiona and the legend of the Witch that the building has locked in the Honeymoon Suite. Not believing these tales, Ohm states that they are hokum and strikes down the stories from the hotel workers who have had first hand experience with the ghostly beings who live in the suite.

Early on in the film, we learn of Ohm’s mothers murder when she was shot in the face by a young child only a few years after his parents’ honeymoon at the Irish hotel. He states his disgust for the person who killed his mother, believing he should have been hanged for his crime and not been too young to prosecute. Overcome with the guilt of his mothers accidental murder, committed at his hand whilst playing with his fathers gun, Ohm proceeds to attempt suicide in his hotel room until he is found by Fiona and rescued.

After recovering from the attempt, he returns to the hotel, riddled with guilt and seeking to apologise to Fiona directly for what he put her through that night, only to find that she went missing on Halloween and hasn’t been seen since. Determined to discover what happened to the woman who saved his life, he embarks on a search for Fiona, beginning in the Honeymoon Suite of the hotel.

As he embarks on his search for Fiona and what happened to her, he is consistently haunted by his past and the guilt he has carried all his life for the death of his mother. He is haunted by her ghost at every corner as he tries to come to terms with the tragedy he caused, repenting for what he’s done by seeking justice for Fiona.

The guilt continues to eat away at him throughout the story, until he is caught by the witch and confronts his mothers ghost. He tells her it was an accident and he has lived his whole life with the blood of her death on his hands. She tells him she knows and that she loves him, helping him close the door on the guilt he has felt his entire life.

Discovering the fate that Fiona met, he helps her soul come to peace, reaching justice for her and helping him to repent for the accident he committed years ago.

Ignoring the deep rooted scares and heart pounding tension that makes Hokum the film it is, it’s an interesting dive into the guilt that childhood mistakes have on adults and the peace that must be made with it in order to move on. In other words, guilt must die for one to live.