‘Hokum’ Interview: Damian McCarthy Knows What Scares You [Digital Feature]
Watch out, because filmmaker Damian McCarthy has a knife. And with it, he’s quickly carving out a distinctly terrifying space for himself within the world of modern horror. Across only three feature films, the Irish director has demonstrated a sharp wielding of atmosphere and a commitment to delivering nightmarish, old-school dread. With his third feature, Hokum, only in theaters May 1, that momentum shows zero signs of letting up.
I had the opportunity to speak with the macabre visionary to discuss Hokum for this Dread Central Digital Feature, and I can’t lie to you: this film was so panic-inducing that I had no choice but to describe it as “gratuitously frightening” in my 4-star review out of its SXSW World Premiere. So just make sure you’re prepared to sleep with the light on after it hits theaters everywhere this Friday.
With three films now under his belt, patterns are beginning to emerge across McCarthy’s work. One of the most notable is his recurring use of rabbit imagery. Without giving too much away, a bunny costume plays a mean role in Hokum, continuing an eerie motif that has quietly threaded its way through his filmography, whether intentionally or not.
“I’ve never really thought of it too much,” the filmmaker tells me. “But I guess because I’m three films in now, and maybe 10 short films or so, it does seem to keep coming up. It’s probably something going back to maybe, as a child, watching Watership Down and being scared by the evil hare in that, or possibly reading Alice in Wonderland and watching the various adaptations of that in film over the years. There’s always something about that idea of a rabbit leading somebody into some dark underworld. I don’t know. It just seems to keep coming up. Maybe I can’t exactly explain why.”
Since McCarthy is currently crafting some of the most effective old-school gothic scares out there, I felt obligated to ask which recent horror films have left him rattled.
“One that I watched last year was called Skinamarink,” he tells me. “I had a very strange experience with the film, because I watched it, and it was fine. I mean—the film is very strange. It’s two kids in a house at night. You never see their faces, you pretty much only see their feet or their little hands, or whatever. Still, as I was going to bed, the film had completely gotten under my skin. And there were definitely two or three nights where it was still with me. And I was going, ‘Ha, that’s so strange because I couldn’t really find a scary visual from the movie that had freaked me out. It was just the whole film had this feeling or this tone… it definitely scared me, and it’s been a long time since something has done that.”
As each film McCarthy makes grows larger in scope, it’s logical to me that mainstream studios will be knocking on his door with legacy projects. So, if he were given carte blanche to direct or write any horror sequel, remake, or reboot … what would he want to take on?
“I’d say pull the trigger,” McCarthy says, cheekily but with certainty. “There’s nothing. I think if it’s done, it’s done. I’m sure there’s stuff I’d be curious about. Okay, we’ll say They Live, for example. I love that film. It’s one of my favorites. I watch it all the time. And I sometimes think, is there something interesting in a reboot of that, or could something be done with that idea, especially now, the way things are? But then if you stop and think about it for a few minutes, it’s like, no, that film is perfect. Just leave it alone. Just make original things.”
During the interview, McCarthy opened the doors slightly about his next project. “After making three feature horror films and ten horror shorts, I feel now like something has clicked for me, in terms of how to craft a scare,” he tells me.
“I really feel like if I were to make another horror film, I think I’d really nail it,” he continues. “I have ideas of how I could build on everything I’ve learned over the last few years. For my next film, I definitely want to make the ultimate haunted house movie. I have the script… and next, I definitely want to make one more out-and-out horror movie and just apply everything I’ve learned to the ultimate haunted-house horror movie. That would be the plan.”
McCarthy’s latest fright fest, Hokum, stars Adam Scott as Ohm Bauman, a prickly author on a personal odyssey to rural Ireland, where he stays at the remote heritage hotel his parents honeymooned at 40 years earlier. With both parents now dead, he has returned with their ashes to the last place they were truly happy. But while the Baumans had some dark secrets, the hotel has secrets of its own locked safely inside the restricted Honeymoon Suite, a room long banned and cornered off to both guests and staff. Why? Because the hotel’s elderly owner is convinced the room contains, and is haunted by, an evil witch.
Hokum arrives only in theaters on May 1. Get your tickets here.
Categorized:Interviews News