Hokum Ending Explained: What’s Haunting Ohm And How Does The Witch Factor Into It?

The following contains spoilers for HokumHokum‘s quietly emotional ending gives the haunted narrative a surprisingly happy ending. The Adam Scott-led horror film focuses on Ohm, a morose author who is haunted by memories and regrets. Deciding to take an impromptu trip to the same rural Irish hotel his parents bonded with years prior, Ohm initially wallows in his sadness.

However, when an employee at the hotel who showed him kindness goes missing, Ohm resolves to figure out what happened to her. Unfortunately, this puts him in the path of the witch trapped on the hotel grounds. Hokum is a tense and scary film, with just enough grounded horror to keep the supernatural scares from becoming overwhelming.

Instead, the film’s surprisingly emotional focus on Ohm slowly reveals what memories have been eating away at him for years, as well as underscores the thematic moral of the film. It’s what makes Hokum more than just a well-executed horror movie, as the scares land so much better with the full context of what they represent in the story.

What Is The Witch In Hokum?

The witch at the heart of Hokum is a mysterious, nefarious force, serving more as a metaphor for mortality than the overt antagonist of the film. The witch is set up by the film’s earliest moments in Ireland, with the old hotel owner telling a story about her habit of dragging wayward souls into a hellish afterlife.

The owner is revealed to know so much because he successfully captured her and has contained her within the wedding suite, which has remained abandoned ever since. This is never fully elaborated on, but this tall tale proves to be true, with Ohm forced to avoid her and ward her off with local folklore.

However, the witch isn’t really the villain of the piece. She’s a force of nature, haunting the room and dragging victims to inglorious fates. However, it is actually the hotel manager, Mal, who is the antagonistic force in the narrative. By contrast, the witch serves as a stand-in for death, possible to ward off but never fully stop.

How Mal Becomes Homkum’s True Villain

Initially presented as a dopey side-character, Ma is Hokum‘s actual antagonist. He’s the one who killed Fiona, doing so because she was pregnant from an affair the two had previously had. Terrified she would disrupt his domestic life by exposing the truth, Mal drugged her during the night of the Halloween party and dragged her into the bridal suite.

There, Mal abandons her to starvation – or worse at the hands of the witch. When the manager discovers Ohm and Jerry are looking into her disappearance within the hotel, Mal becomes an active threat. He tries to murder Ohm and successfully kills Jerry, making him a more actualized threat in the movie than the witch.

Mal represents guilt-free cruelty, in direct contrast to the great guilt and lingering pain that Ohm and Jerry feel for their lost loved ones, both of whom were technically killed by their own hands. While they may be prickly, the pair prove to be noble in their intentions in their search for Fiona and their refusal to just abandon her.

Meanwhile, Mal shows little actual guilt over his actions towards a former lover and the mother of his unborn child. He’s even quick to double down on his murder attempts. However, none of his efforts can save him, as the witch serves as his comeuppance and drags him painfully to hell.

What Is Haunting Ohm Throughout Hokum?

Ohm’s big guilt complex in the film stems from his guilt over accidentally killing his mother as a child. Steady clues in the first half of the film give way to taunting from the witch and flashbacks to Ohm’s worst memory: while playing with his father’s gun, Ohm accidentally pulled the trigger and shot his mother in the head.

Ohm hints this also drove a wedge between him and his father — with Ohm coming to resent the man and treat his memory with less reverence than his mother. Ohm has been left somber for years as a result, a depression that almost leads him to take his own life, and is eventually harnessed by the witch to taunt him.

However, the film doesn’t actually condemn Ohm, as it spends time exploring his guilt and the impact it has had on him. It’s also something he’s eventually forgiven for. Captured by the witch and comforted by the spirit of his mother, Ohm tearfully apologizes for his actions and is embraced, forgiven, and given a second chance.

Ohm’s actions lead to the spirit of his mother passing him the tool he needs to escape the witch. Even Fiona’s body seems to briefly reawaken to glimpse Ohm as he escapes, speaking to the supernatural acceptance of Ohm’s salvation. This growth is also reflected in the movie’s overall arc with Ohm, leading him to grow as a person.

What’s The Conquistador Story All About In Hokum?

Hokum is bookended by Ohm’s efforts to conclude the “Conquistador” trilogy that made him a world-famous author. The previous books are suggested to have been adapted to films in-universe, along with Ohm’s other writings. The opening scene of the film reveals Ohm’s original plans for the finale.

The nameless Conquistador finds himself and his young companion lost in the desert, with the man’s hunt for a treasure leading him to kill his squire in an effort to regain access to a map. This grim finale reflects Ohm’s darker state of mind at the beginning of the film and is befitting his standoffish nature.

This ending would have seen the Conquistador wander the desert until his death. The death of his main character reflects Ohm’s growing suicidal ideation, which leads him to try and hang himself in the hotel. However, after his ordeal at the hotel and escaping the witch with the help of his mother’s spirit, Ohm appears to be a changed man.

In the hospital after his ordeal, Ohm politely turns down a bottle of whiskey when he often sees drinking throughout the film – with his spiked flask even hinted to be why (like Jerry) Ohm could see between the lines of the living and dead worlds, and is polite to a bellhop he insulted earlier.

Even his ending is revised, with the Conquistador now unable to go through with his plan and instead left holding the boy and apologizing for his actions. It’s a reflection of Ohm’s own growth in the film and ability to move on from his own internal strife, with his characters likewise growing as a result.

The True Meaning Of Hokum

Hokum is ultimately a movie about guilt. Ohm is haunted by his, while Jerry has made peace with his. Although Jerry is suspected of foul play by everyone around him because he killed his wife, Jerry reveals to Ohm that it was at her request, ending her suffering while wasting away due to a terminal illness.

Mal shows little guilt over his actions and is punished as such by the narrative. Ohm can acknowledge his mistakes and sincerely apologize for them, only ever tearfully to his mother’s spirit. Meanwhile, Mal defends himself and issues quick apologies for his ruthlessness, but never seems to actually feel guilty enough over his actions to actually hold back.

Ohm clearly feels guilt for his behavior and his actions. Finally confronting those painful memories, acknowledging his actions, and asking for forgiveness from his mother ends up not just sparing his life, but restoring his will to live. That act of humanity and humility is the key to saving Ohm from more than just the witch.

While Mal is dragged into a gruesome fate for his actions – as he only ended up in the witch’s path because of his efforts to cover up his crimes – Ohm finds absolution, forgiveness, and a way forward. Acknowledging your guilt and actually repenting for it plays a key part in Hokum‘s surprisingly emotional ending.

Hokum

9/10

Release Date

May 1, 2026

Runtime

101 Minutes

Director

Damian McCarthy

Writers

Damian McCarthy