Damian McCarthy
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
McCarthy has clearly been influenced by “The Shining,” “The Innocents” and an underseen 2007 gem called “1408” with John Cusack as another writer with bad luck at picking hotels.
…his aim was to put his own spin on the classic "haunted hotel" trope like "The Shining," "1408," and "The Innkeepers" before it.
…the shadows of The Shining loom large over the hotel and its corridors…
En este sentido, Hokum dialoga tanto con el terror clásico de casas encantadas como con referentes más modernos como The Shining, pero sin caer en la cita vacía.
…reminiscent of Stephen King’s work (“1432,” “The Shining”)…
The tonal comparison that kept coming to mind is The Shining by way of Wes Anderson.
…his aim was to put his own spin on the classic "haunted hotel" trope like "The Shining," "1408," and "The Innkeepers" before it.
Hokum‘s setting and acerbic author call Stephen King to mind, 1408 and The Shining specifically, in that the supernatural causes its protagonist to confront their issues in a baptism by unholy fire.
…it is a psychological chiller that sits comfortably alongside other troubled-writer tales such as 1408 or Secret Window — both coincidentally Stephen King adaptations — films that understand the most frightening place is often inside the protagonist’s own head.
McCarthy has clearly been influenced by “The Shining,” “The Innocents” and an underseen 2007 gem called “1408” with John Cusack as another writer with bad luck at picking hotels.
It’s a watered-down 1408 instead. That film, a Stephen King book adaptation, is also about a writer trapped in a haunted hotel room which uses the sins of his past against him.
French shoulders the tale, and you hate to compare anything to Guy Pearce in Memento because who can stand up to that?
With elements of Saw and Memento crossed with a traditional ghost story, Caveat is a mesmerizing single-location horror film that delivers some jump-worthy moments of pure dread.
Su una impalcatura diegetica da casa stregata, con tanto di cadaveri murati, apparizioni spettrali da jumpscare e omicidi multipli, si inserisce una linea narrativa principale alla Memento .
In that way, he reminds me of a younger James Wan, who asserted himself as a master at tension with movies like "The Conjuring" and "Saw," while also proving he could have some fun with movies like "Dead Silence."
Hokum isn’t a story of redemption, but rather one about acceptance, via Saw-lite trials and tribulations.
The Conjuring (2013)
Directed by James Wan
influenced Oddity (2024), Hokum (2026)
Visuals Characters
In that way, he reminds me of a younger James Wan, who asserted himself as a master at tension with movies like "The Conjuring" and "Saw," while also proving he could have some fun with movies like "Dead Silence."
In his sophomore feature, writer/director Damian McCarthy (“Caveat”) puts a supernatural spin on a murder mystery whose amateur detective is a cinematic spiritual sister to the blind seer in “Don’t Look Now” and who runs a store that resembles the Warren’s occult museum (as seen in “The Conjuring” movies).
…you’d have to go back to last year’s double whammy of Weapons and Sinners to find anything comparable…
…we can thank Weapons’ (dir. Zach Cregger, 2025) Gladys for a renewed interest in unleashing characters like this on us for the foreseeable future…
From the studio that brought you Longlegs and Weapons.
I can’t recall the last time a lone scene from a horror movie legitimately gave me chills (it was probably the final scene of 2020’s Shudder surprise, Host ), but Caveat got me good.
When done right, you get movies from Hereditary to The Mummy.
McCarthy has clearly been influenced by “The Shining,” “The Innocents” and an underseen 2007 gem called “1408” with John Cusack as another writer with bad luck at picking hotels.
Anyone familiar with horrors like Robert Wise’s The Haunting will know what they’re in for.
…great horrors use terrifying, sometimes otherworldly, setups as a way of exploring internal human conflict – Don’t Look Now with grief, The Exorcist with spiritual existentialism, and so forth.
…great horrors use terrifying, sometimes otherworldly, setups as a way of exploring internal human conflict – Don’t Look Now with grief, The Exorcist with spiritual existentialism, and so forth.
From the quaint suburbs of Halloween…
Its this character arc and growth that makes Hokum feel like an extended episode of Tales From the Crypt…
Hokum reminded me in a good way of Jessica Hauser’s super-sinister Hotel, down to the quaint witchcraft figurines in the hotel lobby…
…it is a psychological chiller that sits comfortably alongside other troubled-writer tales such as 1408 or Secret Window — both coincidentally Stephen King adaptations — films that understand the most frightening place is often inside the protagonist’s own head.
In that way, he reminds me of a younger James Wan, who asserted himself as a master at tension with movies like "The Conjuring" and "Saw," while also proving he could have some fun with movies like "Dead Silence."
…his aim was to put his own spin on the classic "haunted hotel" trope like "The Shining," "1408," and "The Innkeepers" before it.
It’s a fun little flourish à la David F. Sandberg’s Lights Out, but this tug-of-war between light and dark is neither thematically nor narratively relevant from that point on…
When done right, you get movies from Hereditary to The Mummy.