This past weekend was a celebration of cinema with two trips to the local multiplex and the last feature film to be watched on my 55″ LCD television before its replacement later this week, so, it is fitting to kick off the week with reviews.

First up, the horror film Hokum.

Neon

The third feature film from writer/director Damian McCarthy Hokum is once again set in his native Ireland. Successful American author Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) has traveled to the small and isolated Irish hotel where his parents had honeymooned and, after many years delay, to spread their ashes in the thick nearby wood. Bauman reacts to stories of hauntings and witches trapped in the sealed off honeymoon suite with the skepticism appropriate to not only an American of the 21st century but of a writer known for his dark, bleak novels of human futility. After uncharacteristically warming to a member of the hotel staff, Fiona, Bauman returns to the hotel as it is closing for the season to discover that she has gone missing, and Bauman begins investigating, a process that draws him into the supernatural dangers of the hotel and his own terrible history.

A common comment I heard about Hokum before seeing it was that in tone and intensity the film compares to Ari Aster’s Hereditary, a film that I very much enjoyed and found unsettling in the best possible manner. Now, having seen Hokum I disagree with that comparison. Hereditary was relentless in its narrative and focused with tremendous precision. I found this movie to be a little less focused, some of the plot turns struck me as fairly obvious, when Bauman spoke obliquely about his childhood trauma, I knew instantly what the third act would reveal, and Hokum’s plot meandered a bit, but not to any great detriment, just enough to make a comparison with Aster’s film misplaced.

The film I would compare this one to is 2020’s critically underseen and undervalued The Night House, written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski and directed by David Bruckner. Both films spend considerable time in exquisitely shot darkened scenes with fantastic use of negative space and briefly seen and unsettling imagery. Where Hereditary finishes with imagery and a resolution that might be fitting to one of Bauman’s own novels, Hokum crafts a more traditional if not entirely settled ending for its tale that again fits as a comparison with The Night House.

A second element that Hokum shares with The Night House beyond its cinematography is that by the ending of the film events can be reasonably interpreted as either supernatural or a product of the protagonist’s own mental state with just enough ‘evidence’ to push most viewers into the supernatural conclusion.

Colm Hogan’s cinematography for Hokum is, pardon the pun, picture perfect. The deep shadows and blacks of both the night and the isolated area of the hotel are dark enough to conceal the threats from both Bauman and the audience and yet never so dark as to become frustrating to a moviegoer. McCarthy’s script, while suffering from a touch of predictability, is populated with enough realized characters as to make the plotting work even when that obvious reveal is telegraphed well in advance.

Hokum is enough of a slow burn, quite the opposite of a ‘slasher’ horror film, that it works best in the theatrical environment where someone watching the film will not be continually distracted by their electronic devices, the well-lit room, the kitchen beckoning them with snacks, and the ever-present noise of the outside world. This should be, and needs to be, seen in a darkened auditorium with others reacting to every moment of suspense and shock of a sudden appearance. If you are a fan of horror films, particularly of one that rewards patience, then waste no time in getting to your local theater and seeing Hokum.

Well, as I mentioned in a previous post my 8-year-old 4K TCL smart television has been developing faults that are annoying, faint vertical lines that were apparent in some scenes and invisible in others. This past weekend, after several attempts at resetting the set in hopes that would clear up the trouble failed, I bit the bullet and ordered a new set.

Where the old set was an LED, the new one an OLED LG B5 smart TV is a technology that had been outside of comfortable financial resources in 2018. It also has better response times well suited for my casual Xbox gaming of playing Call of Duty on the weekends and getting my butt kicked by teenagers with mutant reaction times.  I ensured that the set also had a setting to display films as films and not as some unnaturally clear, motion-smoothed soap opera.

Thanks to a discount through my employer, Kaiser Permanente, and a spring sale code from LG itself, I managed to knock nearly $200 off the already discounted price. I am not sure, but I may have paid less for this far more capable television than I did for the set that will soon be recycled.

The original shipping date had it arriving this Thursday, May 7th, but that wasn’t going to work for me as I would be at the day job. I rescheduled the delivery for next Thursday, which just happens to be my birthday and part of a long weekend I had planned for celebrating the fact that I will have officially reached Medicare age. So that is when I will take down the old set, set-up the new one, and the next day have a company come out and pick up the discarded television for e-waste disposal and recycling.

OLED has superior black levels and ‘infinite’ contrast, so I will have to decide among my 4K discs, which one will christen the new set.

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Even as people fled the scene of this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association’s dinner, others safely at their keyboards asserted with the confidence of fools that the shooting had been manufactured as a ‘false flag’ to either generate sympathy for a historically unpopular president or distract the people from other massive troubles dogging this administration.

The WHCA shoot was not a false flag.

The Butler assassination attempt was not a false flag.

The Golf Course ambush attempt was not a false flag.

The Las Vegas mass shooting was not a false flag.

The Unite the Right March and killing was not a false flag.

Sandy Fucking Hook was not a false flag.

False flag attacks do in fact occur, but it is nearly always a state attacking another state, such as Nazi Germany claiming Poland attacked them in September of 1939 and as in that example they are also nearly always so terribly transparent as to fool no one. America is a nation of violent people with easy access to weaponry. It should shock no one that our political leaders face the threat of violence so often.

I have decried and denounced political violence repeatedly here on my blog, from the very deadly and serious attacks on any president or corporate officer to the street level assaults of ‘punch a Nazi.’ Political violence is a beast that, like cancer grows on itself, and once loosed is difficult to excise. I am glad that the assassination attempts against the idiotic, narcissistic, petty, vengeful, and cruel person have failed.  Should a major blood vessel in that rotting matter he calls a brain burst like an ancient bicycle tire, and he dropped dead, you would not find one portion of grief in me, but should you confess a plot to murder him, I would turn you in without a moment’s hesitation.

Murderers and would-be murderers must face the law in a court that resolves their matters without fear or favor, and the political troubles must be solved politically and not from high-speed projectiles.

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.April has been a chaotic month.  The most impactful event, so far, has been the bout of RSV that I managed to contract. Respiratory Syncytial Virus as the name suggests is a virus of the respiratory system, specifically the upper respiratory regions which in the very young, the aged, or the immunocompromised can be a very serious illness. A vaccine for RSV has been developed and two years ago, because I am not an idiot, I took that vaccination. Now, people often think of a vaccination as a perfectly protective shield, but that is not the case with all vaccines. In many cases what a vaccine will do if it doesn’t prevent infection and illness is reduce the severity of that illness when contracted, The fact that I contracted RSV and was ill is not evidence that the vaccine had no effect. In all probability the fact that I was vaccinated likely saved me from a hospitalization as I am no longer a spring chicken and the medication that keeps my arthritis in check compromises my immune system. Note that while I was home sick for a week, coughing my lungs out and having a terrible time, my sweetie-wife was exposed to the virus and has not, now more than a week later, shown any signs of catching the bug. For her the vaccination looks to have been that perfect shield.

It was a week and a couple of days ago that I returned to work and I am just now starting to really get back in something that feels normal health-wise. The coughing has subsided greatly and I am managing to reclaim much of my former energy.

Last night, April 16th, was the season finale for the second run of The Pitt, the medical drama that I never thought I’d get so totally sucked into. Season one turned the final few episodes into a massive dramatic sequence with a spree shooter at a local music festival and many fans, including myself, expected some major event to drive the second half or later of season two, but that was not the plan by the show’s creative team. Instead, with much of the focus on its central character of Dr. Robby, this season seemed to be much more focused on stress for the characters and just how much they erode under its corrosive pressure. A wise choice to avoid repeating the form of season one, keeping the writing fresh and the fans off balance.

I have little to say on the state of the world. The government of the USA is out of control, violating its and international laws with abandon as we suffer the whims of a malignant self-absorbed moron whose petty and greedy nature shatters the post war world order.

After the break in coherent thought brought on by RSV I have returned to my Cascade mountain set folk horror novel with the outlining process now under way.

My best to everyone, stay safe, stay hydrated, and remember don’t be mean.

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I have been missing from my online presence because I have been sick, and it was no fun at all.

During the last week of March, I noticed a scratch in the back of my throat and over that final weekend of March it grew worse. Since I already had an appointment to see one of my doctors on the 31st as part of my on-going treatment for a chronic cough I planned to bring the issues to her. By that date it had grown more painful and congestion had settled in. They took swabs from my upper nasal cavities and the test showed I had RSV.

I had been vaccinated against this very virus but vaccinations when they do not prevent infection at least reduce the severity of it. Given that I suspect that without the shot I may very well have ended up in the hospital. As it turned out, the doctor ordered me home for a week and I suffered terribly for several of those days, despite the mini-pharmacy of drugs I was taking.

During the illness I had only a limited capacity for rational thought with barely the focus for even simple mental tasks. Luckily, in addition to the precautions we took, my sweetie-wife’s vaccination appeared to bolster her immune system better than mine had done for me, and she showed no sign of RSV.

So, today I return to my day job and I hopefully return to work on my next novel.

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Yesterday, Tuesday March 10th, 2026, turned into quite a lazy day for me. After my doctors noted that I had some liver numbers that were out of an acceptable range (which have since returned to more normal values) she asked me to get an ultrasound scan to check the organ. That I scheduled for yesterday at 8:00 am as part of the procedure requires 8 hours of fasting ahead of the test and I know that doing it late in the day would prove challenging.

After skipping a breakfast, I turned up at the Kaiser Zion hospital and without much delay got taken back for my ultrasound. The procedure was fast, painless, and even the gel that they apply to ensure good conductivity of the sound waves was warm and not cold preventing that expected discomfort.

It is my usual habit, when I have a medical procedure of any kind to take the day off, even if like this ultrasound I know it’s going to be fast and without any medication. So, after a quick shopping trip for lunch materials that fit my newly engaged diet, I returned home and played vegetable for the rest of the day.

Today I return to work at my day job but then I have the rest of the week off to attend a cherry blossom festival in Balboa Park tomorrow and enjoy a long weekend after that.