A Haunting Character Study Disguised As Horror

MOVIE REVIEW
Hellcat
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Genre: Horror, Thriller
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director(s): Brock Bodell
Writer(s): Brock Bodell
Cast: Dakota Gorman, Todd Terry, Liz Atwater, Jordan Mullins, James Austin Johnson
Where to Watch: shown at the 2025 Fantasia Film Festival

RAVING REVIEW: HELLCAT wastes no time pulling you into its world of uncertainty. A woman wakes up in a moving trailer with no idea where she is, how she got there, or why she has a wound on her side. That’s the setup, and the clock starts ticking almost immediately. What follows is a lean, paranoia-fueled thriller that gradually shifts into something more emotionally grounded—and ultimately more unsettling. It’s a strong debut feature from writer-director Brock Bodell, and a showcase for Dakota Gorman, whose performance helps anchor the film as it veers from grittiness to psychological horror.

The trailer belongs to Clive (Todd Terry), a mysterious man with an unshakable calm and a deeply strange backstory. He tells Lena (Gorman) that she’s been infected with something terrible, and they have one hour to get to a specialist who can help. Naturally, she doesn’t trust him. But Clive isn’t just some sadistic kidnapper—at least not in the traditional sense. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that neither he nor Lena truly understands the nature of the situation they’re in.

HELLCAT unfolds in a single night, primarily inside a confined, grimy camper. Yet despite its setting, the film never feels stagnant. Bodell’s direction keeps the tension on a low simmer, punctuated by bursts of panic and strange surrealism. This is a film that thrives on ambiguity. You’re never quite sure if what you’re watching is literal or symbolic, grounded in reality or unraveling into something more metaphysical. That ambiguity works in its favor—especially in the first half, where the fear of the unknown is far scarier than anything visual.

Gorman plays Lena with a mix of fear, fury, and quiet devastation. It’s a performance that sells the film’s shifting tone. She’s not just reacting to a physical wound or her captor’s strange behavior—she’s playing someone trying to piece together a fractured identity in the middle of a waking nightmare. The script gives her room to be both vulnerable and confrontational, and she seizes every opportunity. Gorman carries the film with intensity, never slipping into melodrama, even when the narrative takes increasingly bizarre turns.

Terry’s Clive is a character who walks a fine line between sympathetic and menacing. He’s not written as a typical villain, and Terry makes the most of that. Clive’s long monologues about faith, regret, and the paranormal could easily have felt overwrought. Still, Terry delivers them with just enough warmth to suggest a broken man clinging to a belief system that’s slowly crumbling. His devotion to a late-night supernatural radio show, voiced by James Austin Johnson, adds another strange wrinkle—hinting at a world that might be bigger, weirder, and more spiritually infected than either of them realizes.

The film benefits from strong pacing and a script that reveals its secrets gradually. There’s no rush to explain everything up front, which is a smart choice. By the time the second act reveals start hitting, you’re already invested in these characters—not just because of the mystery, but because the core has been established. That depth elevates the horror. Even when the film starts to tilt toward the supernatural, it stays grounded in the real pain of loss, identity, and trying to survive when you don’t know who you are anymore.

HELLCAT is also technically impressive for a lower-budget thriller. The cinematography makes excellent use of the tight space, and the trailer becomes a character in itself—claustrophobic, decaying, and strangely intimate. The lighting is minimal but effective, casting characters in shadows and bathing scenes in a sickly glow. The score adds another layer of tension, utilizing restrained, haunting compositions that never overwhelm the scene but subtly ratchet up the mood. It’s a smart use of atmosphere, making the most of every resource without feeling cheap.

Where the film truly succeeds is in its transition from survival horror to psychological drama. The transformation is gradual, but once it hits, it becomes clear that this isn’t a story about monsters in the traditional sense. It’s about how people define themselves in moments of crisis. Bodell’s script delves into themes of grief, identity, and the stories we cling to when the world no longer makes sense.

The ending doesn’t offer the kind of clean resolution some viewers might want. But it does feel earned. By the time the final moments arrive, you’ve been through the wringer with these characters. The ambiguity of the final stretch works because the story has always been about more than just survival—it’s about transformation. About what happens when everything you believed about yourself starts to slip away, and you’re forced to rebuild your identity from whatever’s left.

HELLCAT may not reinvent the genre, but it does what many thrillers fail to do: it builds real characters and uses horror to explore the human condition. It’s a tense, often surprising debut that’s more thoughtful than its grindhouse premise might suggest. It earns its place by asking questions that stick with you long after the credits roll.

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[photo courtesy of BLUE FINCH FILM RELEASING]

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