Regular readers will know that horror is a genre that lends itself to a lot of our AV testing scenarios. That’s why if you jump over to our regular Now Showing column, or main best Dolby Atmos scenes to test your system guide, you’ll see a fair few entries from the genre.
Whether it’s monsters coming out of the shadows, offering an excellent gauge of your TV or projector’s black level, or its janky, unnatural movements, pushing the tech’s motion handling, there’s a lot about the genre that is taxing for even the best hardware.
But this week, after daring to see Damian McCarthy’s latest film, Hokum, at the cinema, I was reminded of an even more important, in my mind, aspect of the genre that doesn’t always get enough praise: sound.
Editor’s Note: I’ll try to avoid completely ruining the plot, but the rest of the article will include detailed passages describing specific scenes from the film.
From the get-go, the film is a stellar example of how to use darkness to instil a sense of dread. From the opening scene, where Bauman writes in the dark, the background is full of bump in the night scares, and subtle details hidden in the black.
There’s also an excellent moment where a bell boy at the hotel shines a lighter to try to find the source of scary noises coming out of a blocked off elevator. I can already see this being a go-to test for dark detail in our review rooms when the 4K Blu-ray comes out.
As the film continues, as I’ve observed numerous times before, it’s more about what you don’t see, but hear, that really makes it stand out. These start with subtle moments, the sound of something sinister lurking below you as Bauman enters the locked-off room, where the witch was supposedly caught and trapped.
The manager, creeping above, as Bauman and his new friend try to continue their investigation unhindered. In each, the sense of directionality of the out-of-shot movements is pinpoint and makes you feel as though you’re there with him.
There is one scene in particular that truly had me on edge. After Bauman flees the witch, drawing a protective circle around a four-poster bed, he leaps in to hide as it stalks around the area.
Shot from his perspective, behind a thin cloth sheet hung around the bed, you can hear every raspy movement as it creeps up the shaft, then through the suite, room to room, getting closer and closer. Then, as it enters the bedroom, around the thin sheet, every hiss, curse, step and rasp is audible – immersively conveying its movements in a way only Atmos, with its dome of sound effect, can.
Pure nightmare fuel – especially as my wife has now figured out how to replicate some of the witch’s noises and enjoys catching me off guard with them.
The last time I felt this enamoured of a horror film’s use of Dolby Atmos was with Annihilation, which has a similar scene, where a group are trapped in a basement, and you can hear a monster on the floor above slowly approaching.
Which is why I am convinced you’ll be reading about Hokum again, in the not-too-distant future, as an entry in Now Showing, where we detail the latest test discs we’re using for testing purposes.
It's also why I'd urge any horror fan to go to see it at a decent cinema, with a solid sound system. Or, if you plan to wait, endeavour to watch it on a decent home cinema setup, with Dolby Atmos. Honestly, it’s that good.
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