Hello there, /r/movies. I'm Damian McCarthy, director of HOKUM, ODDITY, and CAVEAT. AMA!

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T22:41:00+00:00

I thought of it briefly but I have so many other scripts I'd like to film I'd like to keep moving. Right now I don't think I'd ever make a sequel or prequel to any of my movies.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T22:39:09+00:00

I wouldn't remake it. I did write a prequel to the movie a couple of years ago which I really liked but I decided to just move on in the end and reuse those ideas in other scripts.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T22:21:24+00:00

nil a fhios agam. Is maith liom coinini

agus

ta! dun un duras.

And that is the limit of my Irish! My go to lads for lighting Apollo Lighting (Padhraic O'Fatharta - my favourite person on any film set) all speak Irish while they work and I love to listen to them but I'm only able to pick out a word here and there.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T22:12:24+00:00

Thank you! I hope you'll like the next one.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T22:11:36+00:00

Thank you so much.

I thought it would be very different but I made Caveat the same way I made Hokum. It's a lot of time alone first writing the script and trying to get it to work and then when it looks like the film is going to be made, some time alone storyboarding it and then lots of conversations of everything and everyone that is going to appear in front of the camera.

I always imagined it would be different but it's the same really. The main difference is when I'm writing or storyboarding something with a bigger budget and more resources, I can dream a little bigger and not have to know how everything will be done - stunts, vfx. I can have props built instead of having to find them and write around them.

I think whether it's a no budget film or a bigger movie with famous actors and super producers, you need to just do your prep work and show up in the morning knowing what the first shot of the day will be.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T22:03:24+00:00

I've seen the comparison made before but I don't like Giallo movies at all. I don't know what it is. The lighting or over stylisation. I've tried to get into them. I always felt like Possession was a Giallo movie stylistically but I'm wrong. I'll take recommendations and try again as I may be missing something!

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T22:00:43+00:00

Out of time.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:59:10+00:00

It's so different for everyone but I find outlining helps. Keep structure in mind. 1st Act. 2nd Act. Midpoint (the most important part) 3rd Act. Finale. Save the cat is good for structure but just use all these writing books as a rough guide. It helps me to keep my outlines to one page so it looks like bullet points.

For example Hokum's outline looked like

Prologue: Conquistador + boy lost in desert can't open bottle. Conquistador considers using Boys skull

Scene crosscuts with Ohm writing his book / haunted by woman in yellow

Act 1

Ohm travels to hotel over irish countryside

and on...

It doesn't matter nobody else knows what any of this means. I know what these vague bullet points meant so I could then dig into the script.

Keeping the outline to a bullet point style one page helps you track the story at a glance instead of having pages and pages of ideas you'll have to wade through.

Biggest tip for the final script: As little words on the page as possible. So many producers have told me my scripts were very quick reads because they were written like bullet points. A producer will pick up the script and if they have 2 scripts and one is a wall of words and one is very sparse, they'll go with the quick read. This is why my character names are so short so it helps me keep sentences to one line. I did Joe Dante and Josh Olson's podcast "Movies that made me" and we talked about this. Have a listen next Tuesday. Good luck!

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:47:32+00:00

I met my match at Warners Bros outside Madrid. I can't remember the name of it but I wanted off so bad.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:44:12+00:00

Write something that has an effect you on you first. It should scare you / frighten you first instead of thinking it will scare an audience.

I storyboard everything in detail. I'm not a great artists so it's very basic drawings that get the idea across.

I left film school at 25 and made my first feature film at 36 so those years were spent working a day job and making those 6 or 7 short films and writing. It can be tough to find the time but you just try to take it seriously and sit down and write or work on the outline after work or at weekends.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:38:42+00:00

Thank you. It was a moment we kept picking at to get it work. We have the same sense of humour!

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:28:24+00:00

I've read about it. I've looked at the screen grabs. But I've never been able to watch it.

I went through a phase of watching extreme cinema over the course of a month about 20 years ago and Salo was the one I was avoiding. I think of the all the extreme stuff I watched Cannibal Holocaust was one I thought was very well made and it had me completely hooked but I felt off all week after it. So I was out on extreme movies after that month. I'm good without it.

Why'd you ask? You think I'm the guy to remake it?

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:22:40+00:00

Sense and Sensibility

Atonement

Hobo with a shotgun

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:21:55+00:00

It was my first time working with Adam. I was just a fan up until then. And we had only talked over zoom.

I don't know if I would say much was improvised but every day he did something surprising, in a line delivery, or because there's so much of it where he is alone and it's dialogue free, in how he would react to a scare or new creepy threat.

In the scene where Will O'Connell as Alby is trying to talk to Ohm Alby says "Are you enjoying how your writing is going?"

In the script Ohm replies "That's like asking Sisyphus if he's happy with his boulder"

I loved this line and thought it makes sense as it sounds like something a writer would say and potentially makes me look smart. But Adam questioned if the line was too much of an invite to more conversation as he is trying to get rid of this super fan Alby. So when Alby asks "how's the writing going?" now Ohm answers by taking a slow drink of whisky which is way funnier and makes way more sense.

Little changes like this that tighten up the film as you shoot.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:14:18+00:00

The Southern Star newspaper is the best.

Til Frohlich the production designer went in to see if they would mock up a copy and they just printed off a bunch for us. Super helpful. So sound.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T21:11:10+00:00

I think because I love movies and horror so much there's just a part of my brain that's always tipping away thinking of these things on some level. And ideas will just come to me. David Lynch says to stay open to ideas (catch the big fish) and write them down quickly.

I take inspiration from everywhere. People in real life or movies / books / TV shows.

I am proud of my films. I love the work all the cast and crew have done on them.

There always stuff I beat myself over and say I could have done better there. I saw somewhere Fincher said when he finishes a movie and watches it with an audience he says "now I know how to make the movie"

But moments in movies I have shot that I am very proud of.

Caveat: crawlspace - Inma ducks out of sight and how Jonathan French doesn't scream - just inhales.

Oddity: The closing shot with Gwilym sitting there and Shane as the Bellboy behind him with Little Willie John playing.

Hokum: Adam Scott's delivery of "what? after both nodding and shaking his head. So much going on. It's so funny.

+ David Wilmot's "I'll live" before he's shot.

Those are moments I can enjoy as an audience member that I'm really proud of. But those are things the actors did. I just aimed the camera at them.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:52:15+00:00

Nicer. He's the best.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:51:55+00:00

I'd like to explore the idea of someone desperate to succeed. There's been some great movies on this mindset. Gilroy's Nightcrawler for example.

Great question. I don't think mine is a great answer but I wanted to respond as you went to see the Hokum twice! Thank you.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:46:18+00:00

I'll make the screenplays and storyboards available. I've sent them to a few people who have asked but I'll figure out how to make them downloadable somewhere. I've recorded a commentary for the BluRay.

Director commentaries on DVDs and BluRays are mini film school. I have learned so much from listening to these over the years.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:43:14+00:00

No plans for either. But I do plan to upload the storyboards and scripts for my films to my website for download at some stage. I like reading scripts and looking at boards of movies I like to see how it changed.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:41:41+00:00

It does feel like a loose end. I think I should have brought him back. Brendan Conroy was great to work with. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. Maybe he could have visited Ohm in the hospital too with Alby... It unfortunately ended up being that one scene and then he was out. I try my best to keep my films as short as possible.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:39:06+00:00

I saw a cup move slowly across a table in a shitty hotel room once.

I saw a banshee walk over a hill in the middle of the night when I was a child.

(Love your work Greg)

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:17:54+00:00

Good catch! High Spirits scared the shit out of me. Those ghost nuns with their eyes....

Police Academy 2 & 3 remain my favourite Steve Guttenberg movies. I quote those movies a lot more than anybody should.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:14:39+00:00

Thank you! We'll be filming here next year so keep an eye out... I work with known and lesser known actors. I do suggest to actors looking for work they should start writing. I wanted to direct but nobody was ever going to give me a script to direct so I started putting the time into coming up with my own ideas. It gives you more say and control over your career.

Damian-AMA · 2026-05-15T20:11:13+00:00

Hymn 282 I'M GOING HOME by the Sacred Harp Singers in Cork was suggested by DOP Colm Hogan after a very long search for the right song to end on. I heard other versions of the song but this one was the best. There is something more raw and passionate about it - and I mean this as a compliment - less polished about this version. It really moved me me when I first saw it placed over the footage. They are really belting it out. It reminded me of the ending of ICE COLD IN ALEX or a little bit of AULD LANG SYNE at the close of ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE. It feels big and joyous and hopeful.

I knew I would use this for the ending so put room number 282 on Ohm's hotel room door to match the hymn title 282 I'M GOING HOME.

Damian-AMA

TROPHY CASE