Well, here’s a twist on a tried and true formula as one MMA fighter gets cat scratch fever in Hell!
British horror goes toe to toe with the Mixed Martial Arts arena and comes out with a bloody nose. Just don’t get too excited . . . yet. HellKat is a fun ride down a dark night filled with two moons. Wait. What?
The film opens with a BANG as Katrina “The HellKat” Basynski (Sarah T Cohen) is laid out flat on the mat by her opponent. She is knocked stone cold O U T, but then - after getting her much needed rest and relaxation time in a cheap motel - finds herself fleeing from a vehicle after her own car dies and she leaves it by the side of the road.
Things are about to get twisted rather quickly for this MMA fighter. The world is not the same one she thinks it is.
It seems that her salvation, in the form of Jimmy Smith (Ryan Davies) is a bit too much to handle. His religious babble has her running for her life, but where will she go? Turns out, without spoiling too much of the environmental effects here, that she’s not among the living anymore . . . but her fate has yet to be determined.
Good thing she’s called HellKat, right?! Well, it comes in handy as this low budget flick has her fighting all manner of creature and, yes, it is a fight for the death as she must claw her way to the top of the pile in order to, you know, find a worthy opponent and make her case for a much better place to be. Yet, the armies of darkness and all their zombies won’t let her be.
Too bad, then, that much of this flick is wasted on very routine elements - especially in the ring. Without an audience and without much reaction, the ring battles are a bit of a letdown. This is why I warned that you probably shouldn’t get too excited by this one. It is a bit of a bummer when it comes to the handling of what should be the hardest hitting parts of the movie.
Sadly, those are left for the surrounding details . . . which are pretty fantastic. There is a lot of effort put into the guessing game of exactly where she is after she gets up from the knockout fight at the beginning of the film. Everything is a bit off kilter and it works to make the audience think that (a) this is either a very crappy flick or (b) something is seriously messed up in this world and, yeah, it is the latter. Thankfully.
But the brutality of the situation turns to banality all too soon and the promise in the premise is a bit wasted here. Combining no-holds-barred death tournaments with Hell itself turns out to be ripe and somewhat unexplored territory as one MMA fighter must prove her merit against beast and demon in this film. And it could have been great! DAMN. While confidently executed, the fight scenes - and this one is being compared to Mortal Kombat by Uncork'd Entertainment - hit a little hollow, leaving me wanting a bit more blood in the ring. Solid effects run through it, thanks to demons and zombies and suicides, but the mat battles are a bit weak.
HellKat, premiering today on digital and DVD stars Sarah T. Cohen (Bad Nun: Deadly Vows; Witches of Amityville Academy; Cupid; Clowndoll), Adrian Bouchet, Abi Casson Thompson (Rise of the Mummy; The Candy Witch; Cupid) and Ricardo Freitas. Co-directed by Scott Jeffrey (Bats: The Awakening; Bad Nun: Deadly Vows; Don’t Speak; Cupid; ClownDoll), Rebecca Matthews (Witches of Amityville Academy; The Candy Witch; Pet Graveyard) and Michael Hoad (who handles the action scenes), HellKat was co-written by Michele Pacitto and Jordan Rockwell and features a full-throttled score composed by 20Six Hundred (Monster Force Zero). The movie, warts and all, is a fun waste of time and I am sure it will have its fans. I was just hoping for a bit more . . . bite from HellKat!
Fight your demons. Save your soul.
Home Video Distributor:
Available on Blu-ray
Screen Formats:
Subtitles:
Audio:
Discs:
Region Encoding:
MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 78 mins
Director: Scott Jeffrey, Rebecca Matthews
Writer: Michele Pacitto
Cast: Adrian Bouchet, Sarah T. Cohen, Richard D. Myers
Genre: Action
Tagline: Fight your demons. Save your soul.
Memorable Movie Quote:
Theatrical Distributor: Wild Eye Releasing
Official Site:
Release Date: February 1, 2021
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: August 20, 2019.
Synopsis: A fallen MMA fighter must win a netherworld no-holds-barred death tournament against man, beast and demon to save her soul.
