HellKat

After losing too many fights, a disgraced former MMA fighter is forced to take any odd job she can to get by, and when one of her patrons one day brings an opportunity to redeem herself in the ring she takes it on, unaware of the demonic implications in store for her and must try to fight her way free.

This one wasn't too bad but did have some issues. When this one stumbles slightly is in the rather underwhelming and stilted means of introducing the general plotline of the film as there's a lot of time that goes by without much of anything happening to get to know who she is or what's going on. Dropped into everything without much in the way of backstory about her career or hard-knock life quickly enough which makes for a somewhat confusing start, especially for the various subplots going on throughout here. As well, the finale is a bit of a mess with the abrupt nature and overall suddenness of the change creates a rather jarring effect that isn't all too effective which are really the films' lone issues. Still, this quibble aside, the film manages far more to like elsewhere. The rest of the setup, focusing on her redemption and general rise from despair to make something of herself once again is a rather strongly accomplished aspect here. The fact that the boredom at the lack of action compensates for everything by giving us a wholly impressive set up as to what she's setting out to accomplish, with the backstory involving her son and how she lost him to the self-destructive antics she took out on herself providing plenty of motivation to get us onto her side and understand what's going on. That it takes place in the guise of a martial arts tournament against a series of demons and various other monsters manages to tie everything together rather nicely. As well, the series of action and brawling that takes place here is a lot of fun and quite enjoyable. More of a series of quick-burst fights exploiting the supernatural powers and antics of their captors against the fighters, the choreography still manages enough to like in terms of the brutality dished out as even though it's not nearly as graphic as it could've been the carnage is quite impressive and gets better as the film carries on. As well, the brutality in the locker room depicting the various restoration treatments to repair the damage of the fights clever means is a lot of fun, and with the generally enjoyable make-up work on the creature designs which is all enough to hold this one up overall.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch "HellKat", as written by writers Michele Pacitto and Jordan Rockwell, but I have to admit that I wasn't really expecting much from the movie, given its rather ludicrous synopsis. But still, it being a movie that I hadn't seen, of course I sat down to watch it.

Needless to say that the movie's title and its cover/poster definitely served as a focal point to lure in the audience. And it worked as intended.

And well, let me just be the first to say that "HellKat" delivers what to be expected, but nothing more, nothing less. So don't believe yourself in for a grand moment of cinematic masterpiece here, when you watch the movie from directors Scott Jeffrey and Rebecca Matthews.

As for the storyline told in "HellKat", well it was simplistic, I will say that much. Actually it was so devoid of any deeper writing that you could essentially watch the first 15 minutes, leave the movie, and come back to watch the last 15 minutes, and you wouldn't have missed a beat. The writing in the movie was just so bland and mundane, which left very little enjoyment to be had from sitting down to watch "HellKat".

The acting in the movie was adequate, but there is no doubt about that the movie was singlehandedly carried by the performance of Ryan Davies, playing Jimmy Scott. His performance was the most memorable and outstanding of all the performances in the movie, and he really made the character come to life and gave it so much personality with his performance.

Visually then "HellKat" was semi-adequate. The special effects were sort of adequate, although bordering on being lousy at times. So don't expect to be blown away by a grand display of over-the-top CGI and effects.

All in all, then "HellKat" is a movie that you will watch once, provided you manage to get through the entire ordeal the first time around. I managed to watch it, but weren't overly entertained or impressed with the movie. My rating of "HellKat" lands on a mere three out of ten stars, as the movie was bland, mundane and lacking a properly written storyline.

I was especially surprised at how good this movie was for its budget. The choreography and monster make-up were meh, but everything else I really quite enjoyed. The head bad guy played by Ryan Davies was amazing in his role. The cinematography and color choices were excellent. I'm glad we stumbled on this film. It kept us interested from start to finish.

This has to have been done before, right? I claim no perfect knowledge in any regard, but the concept sounds so much like a videogame, a more extreme rendition of 'Mortal Kombat,' that I find it hard to believe 'Hellkat' is truly the first piece of media to explore the notion of a fighting tournament in the underworld. With that said, even though I had low expectations to begin with, the idea sufficiently caught my attention to warrant a view. Yet the warning signs were clear, and I should have known better: This is most distinctly not a good movie.

In a runtime of only 78 minutes we're treated to basically 20 minutes of exposition - arguably more - before any especially noteworthy narrative elements begin to manifest. We're subjected to absolutely far more character background than is necessary, tawdry dialogue (mind the pointless, casual homophobic slurs), sparing but highly questionable special effects (even smoke rising from a car engine is obvious CGI), and a wealth of passing scenes that are totally superfluous. This is all well before the promised "death tournament" is even mentioned - just under halfway through the movie.

And the centerpiece of the film is a "tournament" in name only: There are no spectators in an unadorned basement with bare walls. The roster of spotlighted fighters is a mere handful, each entering the same ring one by one to face their opponents. Some of the choreography looks great, but at other points it's difficult to assess since the sequences are sometimes shot so haphazardly as to minimize what we actually get to see. Makeup looks fine so long as it's employed simply as part of a character's appearance, or visualizing wounds, but when embellished and used more elaborately in conjunction with prosthetics and masks, the result is appallingly unconvincing. And the music, accordingly credited to "20Six Hundred," is so dull, middling, and lacking that the composer should be ashamed of themselves for such a halfhearted, dispassionate contribution.

Sadly, those latter words rather describe 'Hellkat' as a whole. The cast's roles are underwritten, and their performances are characterized by stilted, disinterested, or otherwise dubious delivery; uninspired expression; and otherwise uncaring acting that makes it seem like being in this movie was nothing more than a job, and not something they believed in. Lighting, used to add atmosphere, is so overdone as to negative the intended effect. Without even considering its value, the sheer abundance of material inserted into the movie before and between the fighting begins makes me question just how much anyone was really invested in the production. It's as though the filmmakers actively disregarded their own concept to deemphasize the hand-to-hand combat.

The movie alternately feels like an effort to realize a promising, enticing notion, a passion project, without any resources to meaningfully do so; an action-horror flick in which every worst impulse has been indulged to an extreme; and or a film that only some of those involved wanted to succeed, while others were actively working to sabotage the endeavor. The root premise is outstanding, one I would love to see brought to life, and there are lots of swell ideas in the screenplay. But the execution is in so many ways simply a mess, and fails to excite or engage us in any way. This is another instance in which the poster crafted to market the feature drastically oversells the content.

I wanted to like this. I had low expectations but high hopes. That hope has been my undoing. No matter what prospectively draws a viewer into this feature, there is no aspect of it that is brought to fruition to any degree of satisfaction. I'm not surprised, but disappointed nonetheless, and I can't imagine any situation in which I could I recommend 'Hellkat.'

This film takes me back to the days of eating junk food on Saturday afternoons with my dad and watching Chuck Norris do roundhouse kicks. But with Hellkat, Sarah T. Cohen just did a round house to my heart. The film is a cerebral suspense thriller with plenty of MMA action to keep your testosterone levels high.

Like I said, it has a throwback vibe to early 90's martial arts action films and had a few twists and turns that caught me by surprise. The soundtrack is killer (composed by 20Six Hundred)!