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Fantasia 2025: Hellcat Review
Image Credit: Fantasia IFF
Loading...Directed by: Brock Bodell
Written by: Brock Bodell
Starring:
Dakota Gorman – Lena
Todd Terry – Clive
Liz Atwater – Ollie
Elise Horn – Sally
Jordan Mullins – Officer Crump
Running Time: 91 minutes
Not Rated
Single location horror, when done right, can be one of the most potent avenues for delivering great scares. The anxiety of being stuck in one place for 90 minutes or more brings a world of potential for the genre. Some of our greatest horror films never result from being trapped in one spot – particularly for indie horror, as it also has the added benefit of requiring less resources.
That claustrophobia is a key part of what makes Hellcat such a nailbiter. The trailer-confined body horror film from Brock Bodell had its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia Festival, centering a compelling performance by Dakota Gorman in a white-knuckle ride with a number of effective twists.
As Hellcat opens, we find Lena (Dakota Gorman) waking up in a camper on the move. Lena is wounded, with a bit of blood on her top, and uncertain where she is or why. She starts to investigate her surroundings, finding herself locked in with a mysterious heavy door to a darkened room on one side of the trailer.
It isn’t long before a voice speaks up from the truck, identifying himself as Clive (Todd Terry). Clive tells Lena that he’s taking her to a doctor, but that she is infected with something and has to remain calm. Lena is understandably suspicious and seeks to escape, but as the effects of her wound start to become more evident it becomes clear that something horrifying is happening to her. She has to figure out if she can trust Clive, how to get free of the trailer, and what exactly is happening to her.
Bodell is the writer and director here, and he’s come up with a strong opening premise. It’s simple enough – girl is trapped in a moving trailer – but the nuances of Lena and Clive’s developing dynamic gives Bodell fertile ground to sow suspense. There’s plenty of reasons to be suspicious of Clive; Bodell places a number of red flags in the trailer, and his vagueness over the speaker raises plenty of hackles.
At the same time, there’s clearly some truth to what he’s saying. The question is, how much? Lena’s attempts to figure out exactly what’s going on, and how much she can trust Clive, provide the narrative throughline with plenty of emotional beats seeded throughout.
The very premise of Hellcat puts the onus on Gorman to carry the film; she’s alone in the trailer, after all. She proves more than up to the task, balancing Lena’s terror with a steely resourcefulness that makes her easy to root for. Terry has a difficult role as most of his acting is strictly through his voice, but he handles it well and gives Gorman plenty to work off of. Their chemistry feels authentic, which is not an easy thing to establish when only one is on screen for most of the running time.
Bodell keeps the pace of his film moving along briskly but provides crucial moments where the film can breathe as well. He finds creative ways to use the trailer, blending in flashbacks that meld into Lena’s environment to add some depth to her character. It’s not a character study, but a little goes a long way into getting us invested in Lena and her fate.
It’s not hard to figure out pretty quickly what exactly is going on with Lena; savvy genre viewers will guess at it long before the words are said. But the mystery is less the point than the suspense and tension of who can be trusted. Bodell plays with a lot of themes around the notion of trust here, all leading into a well-orchestrated climax that marks Gorman and Bodell as exciting new potential voices in the genre.
The Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal from July 16th through August 3rd.
