If you are one of the people eagerly awaiting Robert Eggers' Werwulf, Hellcat may be worth checking out in the meantime.
It opens with Lena (Dakota Gorman), a young woman trapped in a trailer with no memory of how she got there. Her mysterious captor, Clive (Todd Terry), claims he is trying to save her by bringing her to a doctor, as she has contracted a mysterious illness slowly spreading all over her body. This is later revealed to be the result of a werewolf bite, and Clive appears to have a genuinely good reason for keeping her locked up.
Gorman delivers a fantastic performance, selling Lena's distress and often carrying long, drawn-out scenes completely by herself. A lot of the film hangs on the strength of her acting, and she is by far the standout, though Jordan Mullins is equally captivating. Mullins plays the policeman who kidnaps Lena after Clive lets her go, delivering a chilling and commanding performance despite his limited screen time. His voice, at first heard through a radio, is so menacing that it immediately makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Sadly, the performances are doing a lot of heavy lifting for the narrative, as the script itself is slightly lacklustre. Many conversations feel pointless and meandering and make this 91-minute film feel much slower than it is. Furthermore, there are a few character moments that feel wholly unearned, like Clive talking about his struggle with identity, and the last conversation between him and his daughter. They don't have a single full conversation with each other and then suddenly we get this tearful goodbye scene that is so out of place it feels as though entire scenes are missing. It also introduces interesting ideas, like the radio station, but the film abandons them before they can actually make an impact.
Hellcat is a genuinely intriguing movie, filled with great performances that nearly carry it, but is sadly dragged down by an underdeveloped script that doesn't do its characters justice, leaving you wishing it had given its ideas more room to breathe.
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