As fans of the genre well know, horror movies aren’t just a seasonal thing. But over the past several years, it seems they’ve pushed themselves more into the year-round mainstream. Studios are putting more effort into giving horror films wider releases and stronger promotion. And it’s easy to understand why. The formula is pretty simple. Horror movies are usually made on a small budget which means turning a profit is a lot easier. So it makes sense why we get so many.

The first of three horror films getting a wide release in May is writer-director Damian McCarthy’s “Hokum”. As with his previous two chillers, “Caveat” and “Oddity”, McCarthy relies mostly on atmosphere, mood, and patient pacing to unnerve us. He tells another emotionally grounded ghost story, shrouded in mystery and steeped in folklore. For the most part, it stays true to its effectively eerie approach, only occasionally disrupting things with a lazy jump-scare.

Adam Scott plays Ohm Bauman (Scott), a successful author struggling to finish the third novel in his popular Conquistador trilogy. He’s stuck on the epilogue to his bleak story, which may or may not be inspired by some pretty heavy personal trauma. But Ohm’s book briefly takes a back seat after he discovers some of his parents’ old belongings including a picture of his mother by a massive redwood tree in Ireland.

Ohm traces the picture back a remote country inn in Ireland called the Bilberry Woods Hotel. During happier days, it’s where his mother and father spent their honeymoon. So Ohm travels there with plans to stay for a week, hoping to spread his parents’ ashes by the big redwood tree from the photo, and finding closure for himself in the process. But there is a deeply troubled side of Ohm that ends up sending the movie down a dark path. And the events that unfolds will have you questioning much of what you see.

The hotel itself introduces an interesting assortment of characters including the creepy old owner named Mr. Cob (Brendan Conroy), the receptionist Mal (Peter Coonan), the groundskeeper Fergal (Michael Patric), the bellhop Alby (Will O’Connell), and the bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh). The smug and sardonic Ohm leaves a bad impression with everyone other than Fiona who helps him locate the old redwood tree from his mother’s photo.

But then the movie broadsides us with a shocking turn which I won’t spoil. It’s a jolt that we never see coming, yet that never feels as significant moving forward as it clearly means to. Shortly after, Ohm learns that Fiona has gone missing. The semi-concerned hotel staff are quick to name a shaggy local named Jerry (David Wilmot) as the prime suspect. Yet they bristle at Ohm’s questions, especially when he asks why they refuse to search for her in the glaringly suspicious, locked-tight honeymoon suite.

Of course there turns out to be a lot more to the honeymoon suite. Ohm faces off against an unexpected enemy. He gets help from an equally unexpected ally. And the frights come from all directions, inspired by old witch tales, the notion of demons, and even classic haunted house stories. McCarthy weaves them all together into something genuinely macabre yet without fountains of blood and gore. And he succeeds in keeping us on the edges of our seats.

While it does borrow ideas from other horror movies that came before it, there is a uniqueness to “Hokum” that gives the film its own identity within a grounded and ever-growing field. That said, key elements of the story could have used more attention, whether it’s Ohm’s family issues or deeper explanations of the hotel’s secrets. Still, getting something that’s even slightly original to the horror genre is refreshing. And McCarthy continues to build a resume that makes him an exciting new voice going forward.