HellKat Review: Purgatory Pugilism Falls Flat

There has always been a debate over the essence of human nature. Notorious philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau gives us two disparaging views. Hobbes believes that humans are selfish hedonists while Rousseau felt that humans are naturally good and noble savages. While all of us can show off both of these traits from time to time, there are times where we have to redeem ourselves for the mistakes that we have made in our lives.

HellKat, a horror action flick produced by Wild Eye Releasing and distributed by Uncork’d Entertainment, gives us an uneven idea of bad choices and the hope of redemption.

Katrina “Hellkat” Bash (Sarah T. Cohen), a former MMA champ who decides to take an excursion on a road to nowhere in an attempt to escape from the world for a while. When her car breaks down, she accepts a lift from Jimmy Scott (Ryan Davies). When Katrina and Jimmy engage in a discussion about religion and personal issues that turns menacing, Katrina pulls Jimmy’s handgun and plugs him straight in the face. Katrina escapes into a bar where her road trip turns into a path of destruction with tons of chain smoking and heaps of tequila. The Barkeep (Adrian Bouchet) asks Katrina about her mysterious scar across her neck. With Katrina’s unbeknownst scar, Jimmy’s return and the mysterious looking basement, Katrina realizes that this bar is something far more sinister and the basement is a wrestling ring where Katrina must fight for her redemption and to be reunited with her son.

Director Scott Jeffrey does his best with helming this story, but the film fails in many ways. One of the opening scenes there is a major continuity error when Katrina’s steering wheel is on the right side of the car when Jimmy picks her up, his steering wheel is on the left side. I know this is nitpicky and that about a third of the world possesses right-handed steering, but this makes it all the more confusing.

The fight scenes come off as fundamental, providing the feel of backyard MMA and digressing into basic moves straight out of any independent wrestling entity. The opponents of Katrina’s and another misguided soul Grizz (Serhat Metin) were uneven when Grizz takes on two different opponents while Katrina fights the same recycled opponent twice. Why she doesn’t fight a different opponent is puzzling. While the story has some intrigue, it may have been too bold for the budget.

Sarah T. Cohen is miscast as Katrina as she doesn’t look the part and being an MMA fighter, and a champion at that, colored me skeptical. While Serbat Metin looks the part, but due to the inadequate fight choreography, couldn’t sell me on being a pugilistic force. The shining star would have to be Ryan Davies. His powerful presence and non-stop charisma gives us a villain that we love to hate.

There are several action movies with many, well-choregraphed, fight scenes. Because of this, I must tell viewers to make HellKat a hard pass.

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