Joseph Bishara - Hokum (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2026) [Hi-Res]

Hokum is the original motion picture soundtrack to the Irish supernatural horror film Hokum (2026), written and directed by Damian McCarthy (Caveat, 2020; Oddity, 2024). The score was composed by Joseph Bishara — one of Hollywood's most sought-after horror composers, whose credits span the Insidious and The Conjuring franchises, Malignant, Annabelle, and Dark Skies. The album is released on void recordings, a Los Angeles-based label devoted exclusively to Bishara's work.
The film follows novelist Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott), who retreats to a remote Irish inn — the site of his parents' honeymoon — to scatter their ashes. Staff legends of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite take hold of his imagination; when a hotel employee mysteriously vanishes, Ohm is drawn into a nightmarish confrontation with his long-suppressed childhood trauma. The film had its world premiere on 14 March 2026 as an SXSW Midnighter selection, where it won the Audience Award, followed by a US theatrical release on 1 May 2026 via Neon. It holds a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Bishara's score is firmly rooted in his signature aesthetic: choral moans, quasi-instrumental noise, near-inhuman wails, and dissonant percussive loops that build a slow-burn atmosphere of dread. Critics have highlighted his command of silence — the music deliberately recedes at key moments, transforming pauses into an independent instrument of terror. Several reviews drew parallels with the Kubrickian tradition, particularly The Shining, which Hokum implicitly references through its tormented writer-in-an-isolated-hotel premise. The 21-track listing mirrors the film's narrative arc, each brief cue carrying the atmospheric weight of a specific scene — from the uncanny forest approach ("old forest finding", "bell leading") to the descent into the underworld ("led down below", "dragged to the dark") and final catharsis ("to safety"). The score's sonic language sits at the intersection of dark ambient and experimental noise, extending the creative methodology Bishara has developed across his void recordings catalogue.

Tracklist:
1-1 Joseph Bishara - Hokum [3:06]
1-2 Joseph Bishara - evil old crone [1:12]
1-3 Joseph Bishara - could have been taken [2:05]
1-4 Joseph Bishara - old forest finding [1:53]
1-5 Joseph Bishara - bells call [0:51]
1-6 Joseph Bishara - closed entrance [1:13]
1-7 Joseph Bishara - bell leading [1:29]
1-8 Joseph Bishara - is something inside [1:27]
1-9 Joseph Bishara - costumed corpse [1:04]
1-10 Joseph Bishara - vertical tomb [1:27]
1-11 Joseph Bishara - dictaphone reveals [1:28]
1-12 Joseph Bishara - who's there [1:10]
1-13 Joseph Bishara - trauma show host [0:38]
1-14 Joseph Bishara - lift shaft [1:38]
1-15 Joseph Bishara - walled in [1:25]
1-16 Joseph Bishara - basement rider [0:56]
1-17 Joseph Bishara - chalk circle [1:54]
1-18 Joseph Bishara - exit path [2:37]
1-19 Joseph Bishara - led down below [1:34]
1-20 Joseph Bishara - dragged to the dark [1:01]
1-21 Joseph Bishara - to safety [3:10]