Hokum: parents' guide
Best for ages 16 and up. Rated R for some violent/disturbing content, and language.
A creepy, slow-burn Irish ghost story for older teens and adults: a bitter novelist travels to a remote hotel to scatter his parents' ashes and is pulled into a missing woman's case and a local legend about a witch. It has less blood than many horror films but plenty of disturbing material, including a suicide attempt by hanging, flashbacks to a boy accidentally shooting his mother, the corpse of a pregnant woman left to die and a fatal crossbow shot. The hero drinks heavily, characters take psychedelic mushrooms, and people are drugged. Expect a dozen or more f-words. The suicide attempt, parental death and drug content make it a 16.
What's in it
Violence
ModerateLittle gore but jarring moments: a man found hanging after a suicide attempt, a crossbow bolt to the head, a pregnant woman left to die, a hand burned with a hot spoon, a hotel fire, and a flashback of a child accidentally shooting his mother.
Language
StrongPlugged In counted about 16 f-words and two s-words (Movieguide counted 12 f-words), plus motherf-----, a--hole, goddamn, piss, hell and frequent misuse of God's name.
Sex and nudity
MildNo sex scenes or nudity. The plot involves an affair that led to a pregnancy, which is discussed in dialogue.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
StrongThe hero drinks whiskey and moonshine to excess, and a man steals medicine for his own use. Psychedelic mushrooms are drunk in milk and slipped into a whiskey, someone's tea is drugged, and the hero's father drank himself to death.
Scary or intense scenes
StrongSteady dread in a gloomy hotel: a locked suite said to hold a witch, ghostly visions of the hero's dead mother, a decaying corpse, an underworld of glowing-eyed creatures, a dead goat, and frequent jump scares.
Sensitive topics
- Suicide
- Death of a parent
- Addiction
- Animal death
Worth talking about
Ohm's guilt over a childhood accident shapes how he treats everyone around him. Can people move past something terrible they did by accident, and what role does forgiveness play?
On our lists
Similar picks around 16+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, the MPA, Wikipedia, bbfc.co.uk, movieguide.org. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.