Matthew Percefull
Single-location films can be a double-edged sword. They can be a cheap and intimate way to tell an effective genre story without all of the fluff that can weigh them down. On the other hand, it can also trap the writers in repetitive traps that ultimately weigh down the finished product. Brock Bodell’s debut thriller, Hellcat, uses a single-location structure to tell a claustrophobic story with hints of a familiar creature.
Hellcat spends most of its time focusing on Lena (played wonderfully by Dakota Gorman), who wakes up and finds herself in the back of a moving camper. The only answers she’s getting are from the seemingly crazed man (veteran character actor Todd Terry) driving her. He says that she’s been infected with something, but we’re constantly led to question the validity of his claims. This nightmare scenario is made much worse by the reveal of her pregnancy.
The early sections of Hellcat, as the mystery starts to unravel, are easily the strongest stuff in the film. The atmosphere of the camper was unsettlingly homely. The creep factor is somehow enhanced by the mundanity of the decorations that fill the camper. Tacky drapes and coffee mugs swing along, causing a constant thudding sound as the camper pushes through its mysterious road trip. The dark blue lighting of the film can make later moments, outside of the camper, a little hard to see, but it enhances the claustrophobia when we are inside of it. The camper is perfect for a single location story. I was more than willing to spend 90 minutes there. It isn’t just the set design that gripped me right away. The script is also pretty clever about playing with audience expectations early on.
The film is hiding a twist, but it also knows that you’re likely expecting a werewolf at some point. The way that her potential transformation was spliced with her body’s reaction to pregnancy was really well done and kept me guessing where the film might actually be going. Hellcat constantly taunts the audience with a wolf head that houses the speaker from which we hear Clive’s voice. In its best moments, Hellcat has a similar feel to something like 10 Cloverfield Lane in the way that it purposefully confuses the audience as to who is actually telling the truth.
Hellcat has a bit more to offer than a contained thriller. It attempts to tackle modern conspiracy culture— an idea that I thought the film should have gone deeper on. Throughout the film, the driver who we later learn is named Clive tells Lena that he is “a good, honest man.” He thinks that every step he takes, no matter how violent, is justified by his intentions. That sort of blind belief in oneself as a vessel for good in a world full of hidden evils is what fuels a lot of the conspiratorial thinking that has leaked into mainstream culture. There are small character traits such as Clive referring to COVID as “China virus” and the dated decor in his camper that hint at the type of real-world person that Clive is meant to represent without beating you over the head with it. In some manner they mean well (at least they think they do), but their ignorance of reality can take them down some dark roads.
Dakota Gorman carries large portions of Hellcat as the only face on screen. She is excellent at flipping between capable Final Girl and potential threat if what the man says is true. She is asked to do quite a lot and carries all of it with depth. Her consistent back and forth with Todd Terry’s Clive are the most compelling scenes in the film; both actors are absolutely chewing the dialogue, which adds to the tension of their characters’ dynamic.
Part of me wishes that Hellcat would have stayed with this simple premise longer. About halfway through, the stakes raise one after another. New characters and elements are introduced at an almost rapid-fire pace. Some of it remains intriguing; I got a kick out of a later bit with a radio host, but it loses that slow-burn feeling that worked so well in the first half. The climactic third-act confrontation does not happen between Lena and Clive but rather another character who doesn’t make an appearance until an hour in. The ending is entertainingly wacky enough to make up for it; it’s just a shame that the filmmakers seemingly didn’t have full faith in their mystery.
Though there were some bumps towards the back half, Hellcat delivers a pretty fun thrill ride that would be great as a Halloween watch. Dakota Gorman and Todd Terry are terrific throughout, and the claustrophobic atmosphere really sticks. Ultrasound and Dead Water director Brock Bodell delivered a clever and tense debut that I hope he gets a chance to build on in the future.
