During one rough night, a woman wakes up in a trailer with a disembodied voice talking to her from outside her space. Soon, she finds another woman and she starts to panic even more.
Written and directed by Brock Bodell, Hellcat is a sort of one-location story as most of the film takes place in the trailer until about the last third of the film and it makes it work decently. From early on, some of the surprises for later on in the film are pretty easy to guess, but the writing does keep you interested beyond the twists and surprises. The characters here are not all that deeply developed and one of the twists about one of them will make some groan with predictable annoyance, but in general, the characters are interesting. There is a bit missing here and there in who they are and their do feel a bit two-dimensional. That being said, the film does move pretty fast, and the details are not as important as in other stories. This isn’t really a character study, but a look at people with odd beliefs can meet with the one thing that has been their holy grail and how they’ll react to it.
The cast here does quite well, helping the viewer immerse themselves in the story by connecting with them through performances. The leads here are fully invested in their parts, even when details are missing and the character development is not super advanced. Dakota Gorman plays Lena really well, giving her emotions that fit just right, giving her character strength, courage, and that extra little thing that makes viewers connect and want her to survive. The disembodied voice she deals with for a while and eventually sees the man attached to it is played by Todd Terry who plays this bad guy who may be a bit more of a lost soul quite well. He’s menacing a bit, sad mostly, and definitely passionate about what he’s doing and why. The rest of the cast gets a whole lot less screen time (or sound time), but they do decent work with their smaller involvement.
In terms of look, Hellcat does good use of darkness with limited lights inside the trailer and outside at night. The film’s cinematography by Andrew Duensing looks good in darkness and in light, making the most of each scene, elevating some even. The framing here works, even in more chaotic scenes, matching and working with the energy of what is going on in the scene. This is tight cinematography that works great here.
Hellcat is a worthy watch for those willing to bypass the predictability of the twists and the one groan-inducing character bit about the lead character. The film has solid performances, some good writing and direction, and solid cinematography. This is one that may not appeal to all, but for those who can see the interest here without having too many details, it should be an enjoyable watch.
Fantasia 2025 runs from July 16th to August 3rd 2025