I watched Damian Mc Carthy’s Oddity when it started streaming two years ago, and this year his new film Hokum hit Prime this week so I went back and watched his first film Caveat on Shudder as well. These would be a fair shout for challenge day ? Big Old House.
28.
Caveat (2020)
Hokum (2026)
But maybe watching them back to back was a mistake because while all three have clear connections - isolated houses, strange little artefacts, glimpsed maybe-undead and the like - these two have even more overlap in plot and some details. Oddity doesn’t have anybody getting shot with a crossbow, for example.
Caveat sees a man with amnesia hired by an alleged friend to keep an eye on a troubled niece, the title referring to the things the alleged friend doesn’t mention, the creepy house being on an island and the man being required to wear a sleepwalking harness.
Hokum sees a writer visit the seemingly haunted hotel where his late parents had their honeymoon, being saved from hanging himself and on release from hospital finding that the staffer who saved his life is missing.
All three involve murder plots as well. And the connections run deeper than that, especially with these two.
The weird guy on TV is new to Hokum, though. Although it again shows that Mc Carthy likes googly eyes.
Both have good atmosphere and jumps, but Oddity has the best scare of the three for me. Hokum has the advantage here for being funny quite often.
The medium: Shudder for Caveat, Prime for Hokum - which meant it had ad breaks which didn’t help
Gameability: Magical items helping with an investigation in a big creepy building. Yes.
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