Hellcat was watched as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival 2025! It had its showing on Friday, July 25th as part of the festival, and it was the World Premiere of this film!
I will say I think HELLCAT is a terrible name for a school mascot, but not a terrible name for a movie. I am sad to be the one to tell you this, but this movie has nothing to do with the TV show from 15 years ago named Hellcats, about competitive cheering. And I watched that season of a tv show, I think!
No, this Hellcat is about a lady, who wakes up in a trailer and confused, very confused. Lena (Dakota Gorman) does not remember how she got in this little slice of a home, but she knows she is alone in it and it is moving down the highway. Eventually, she is able to communicate with the driver, Clive (Todd Terry), who says that she is safe, and he is going to take her to a doctor.
A doctor, what for? Well, seems like she was bit by SOMETHING, and is infected, and this guy saw it happened, and is going to try and get her cured before it is too late. That is, unless its all a lie and she was abducted and is being gaslit.
Oh what a time to be stuck in a trailer.
Also starring Jordan Mullins and James Austin Johnson as a talk show radio guy.
I have seen beds like this before, but it is not due to murder.
It was also a longer movie than I thought it would be given its limited scope of action pieces. I guess the outside of the trailer is explored, as is front seat, and a couple of set locations. Honestly might have worked better as an almost entire, shorter, bottle episode like film. I think Gorman and Terry did a wonderful job portraying these characters and the huge amount of distrust and confusion over this situation. It is just one of those things where the story itself doesn’t live up to the acting.
It is a simply story, which isn’t the issue. Just the few reveals we get along the way aren’t as exciting as the initial premise. It has its cool moments! The film still warrants a watch and has some fun conversations with the leads and other side characters. But I can’t tell you where things wrong. Maybe a discrepancy with budget and what they wanted to do, or the search for a bigger payoff and twist. But it is a simple story that should have stayed a little bit more simple. Hell, I watched Locke, which was just Tom Hardy on the phone for two hours, and it was gripping. We could have done a lot more with talking and not showing in this case.
Hellcat, an interesting idea, good acting, but a poor payoff in the end.