The best use of cherubs since Botticelli. Adam Scott plays Ohm Bauman, a cynical, embittered author penning the end of his very popular “Conquistador” trilogy of books. On a whim, he leaves his palatial modern manse in Washington state and heads out to Ireland, to the very hotel his late parents enjoyed their honeymoon. As Damian McCarthy‘s film is a proper Irish horror story, there’s a witch, a cynic and a drunk involved.
Once at the dark, drab place — replete in with a haunted honeymoon suite, so says the frisky Fiona (Florence Ordesh), one of the attendants. When she suddenly goes missing, shortly after helping Ohm in a deeply affecting way, he feels obliged to get to the bottom of her case, even as Cob (Brendon Conroy ), a local vagabond with an illustrious past, convinces him she’s been murdered and is stuck in the haunted suite of the hotel.
McCarthy‘s film is a taut, well apportioned horror flick with genuine spooks aplenty (he gets much mileage out of the aforementioned cherubs, beaming horrifically from every portal and sconce). Scott, going largely against type as a churlish lout through much of the film, uses his natural ingratiation against the audience, before finally turning the other cheek.
Much of the film feels appropriately closed in and claustrophobic — it’s the kind of movie where the frame remains resolutely dark and macabre no matter how many lights are turned on — and it has just enough psychological depth (and sense of humor) to keep things popping. I would not suggest watching it alone.
