Scene Lately: Hokum, Paper Tiger, Evil Dead Burn, Furious & More

Let's kick things off with Hocum, and it was directed by Damian McCarthy.

The logline reads, a horror writer visits an Irish inn to scatter his parents' ashes, unaware that the property is said to be haunted by a witch.

Damian McCarthy is an Irish filmmaker, and he gained some traction by his two previous horror films called Caveat, which was released in 2020, and Oddity, which was released in 2024.

Oh, cool.

I didn't know he had another besides Oddity.

Yeah,

I didn't either.

Have you guys

seen either of them?

No, I was going to say I haven't seen either one.

Yeah, Mark, we talked about Oddity a little bit.

Yeah, I caught that one.

Yeah.

We'll have to check out Caveat.

Yeah, I haven't seen Caveat yet, but I did watch Oddity after seeing Hocum.

So a little sneak preview of what I thought about this movie.

But McCarthy's filmography has been described as folk horror, which in the case of the two movies that I have seen, they both take place in Ireland and they have a heavy emphasis on a foreboding atmosphere with supernatural elements lightly peppered in.

And I think that kind of pairs nicely with my personal preferences.

It doesn't just delve completely into the supernatural, but there are definitely elements of that integral to the plot, I guess.

I thought Hocum was really well made and unique.

It's interesting because I feel like most horror films feature an empathetic protagonist because you kind of need to be locked in with them for the ride that's about to ensue, right? Yeah.

And they usually have a bunch of snarky, disaffected friends that serve as fodder for whatever killers after them.

I mean, I'm sure you guys agree with this.

This probably sounds pretty familiar, right? Oh, yeah.

Yeah.