FrightFest review – Hellcat
Writer-director Brock Bodell’s Hellcat isn’t entirely set in the back of a camper van, but much of the action – and the lead character – is confined there for most of the running time … making this an unusual road movie where we don’t often see the road.
It’s a version of a familiar horror premise – waking up in a confined space at the mercy of an unseen tormentor – but on wheels. Lena (Dakota Gorman) wakes up to find she has a crudely-bandaged wound on her arm and that she’s stuck in the mobile home of Clive (Todd Terry), an older man who mostly communicates via intercom. He says he’s captured her for her own good and is driving her to a specialist who can treat her particular condition – though the doctor also works at a sideshow attraction, setting off alarm bells. As the film progresses, we get more and more of the picture – Clive’s teenage daughter Ollie (Liz Atwater) is also aboard, heavily drugged and suffering herself, and he consults a paranormal huckster who has an all-night radio show for vital information.
Clive insists that Lena is succumbing to a dangerous infection, and there’s little time to do anything about it. She acknowledges that she’s going through changes, but has another idea about why – she tells him she’s pregnant. About half an hour in, Lena is going through the camper in search of useful tools and weapons and finds a very significant object in a drawer which more or less gives the game away about what Clive thinks she’s going through … but there’s then the question of whether her abductor is a dangerous loon or actually possessed of secret wisdom in arcane areas.
The trick of Hellcat is to keep moving while all the possibilities are up in the air – and Gorman, getting an extraordinary acting workout, stays centre screen throughout, showing a mother-to-be’s inner strength and cunning as she tries to manipulate a man who might be well-intentioned or an absolute psychopath but also perhaps showing a snarlier side which hints at what else might be growing inside her. I’ve noticed that some critics find the finale, which is effects-heavy in a 1980s manner, unsatisfying, but I’m willing to overlook some stretchy rubber when a film comes up with an idea I’ve not heard before and whatever else it is, the punchline of Hellcat is a unique spin on an old, old tale.
A number of films in this year’s FrightFest are road movies, which suggests a revival of a much-liked 1970s sub-genre: He Kills at Night, Redux Redux, Cover.
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