‘Hellcat’ Director And His Star On Their Chilling Fantasia Debut [Fantasia 2025]
Brock Bodell’s directorial debut, Hellcat, is a single-location horror story that features a woman’s worst nightmare: waking up in the back of a strange man’s trailer, unaware of what’s going on and where you are. From there, Bodell’s script reveals a bizarre scenario that unravels through an incredible physical performance from star Dakota Gorman and a perfect use of audio.
We spoke with Bodell and Gorman, as well as Hellcat cinematographer Andrew Duensing, at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival (where the film had its world premiere) about Home Depot parking lots, acting possessed, and filming in tight spaces.
Dread Central: So, how did Hellcat come about?
Brock Bodell: My wife and I were in a Home Depot parking lot. And I was at the time, just trying to think of an actually producible film that we could all make, which meant a smaller one. And I saw a Home Depot moving truck, one of those box trucks, and it was literally right next to us in the parking lot. I was like, “It would be fucking crazy to wake up in the back of one of those things, wouldn’t it?” [My wife] was like, “Yeah, why are you saying that? That’s so weird.” [Laughs]
I do that shit all the time: spring an idea on her and she’s like, “You need to just take a nap, you’re freaking me out.”
But I was like, “That’d be crazy to wake up in the back of [a box truck].” She’s like, “Yeah, that would be crazy.” And I was like, “Also, it would be crazy if there was someone talking to you who was driving.” Ultimately, we just started firing off on it, and then I was like, “OK, I’m now fully obsessed with this idea. The thing that really triggered it, honestly, was thinking about the conspiracy theory, cryptid, Art Bell, radio angle. Then I was like, “Oh, and we’re in the good stuff here.”
DC: How did that aspect of the story come to be? I’m a huge cryptid person, my dad loves Art Bell, all that stuff. So I was super stoked that those ideas came into the story. Was that always in your head to have as part of Hellcat?
BB: For sure.
DC: I liked how that expands the world, too, without having to go visually outside of the trailer.
BB: We pulled out all the tricks that we possibly could to make this very small world feel big. But also, I worked in college radio, I’ve always been into music, I love films like The Fog and Pontypool, these movies that have that romanticized late-night DJ [vibe]. And Art Bell, of course.
That was when it really started feeling juicy to me. I was like, oh, there’s a space outside of the space that we’re in that actually can be a really great character. And then he’s [gestures to DP Andrew Duensing] friends with James Austin Johnson, and he was like, “I think he’d be great for the voice [on the radio.” He’s an incredible impressionist. He’s on Saturday Night Live, he does Trump.
So he came in and he was like, “So what are you thinking? I was like, “I was thinking Art Bell.” Then he got on the mic, and I was like, “Oh my God. Good job, dude. That’s it. We’re done.” I mean, I guess that’s why he’s on Saturday Night Live, because his improvisation was just so good. But yeah, the romanticized, late-night radio DJ thing was always very much special for Hellcat.
DC: So, how did you build the trailer? Or did you shoot in an actual trailer?
BB: We shot in the old shit. [Laughs]
DC: Okay, cool. How was that for everybody? You remodeled the inside, though?
BB: Oh, we did. We built it out for sure. The inside was a shell. There were a couple of little elements already there, like some cabinetry and the old refrigerator. But yeah, we built it out.
DC: But you were shooting in a tiny little space.
BB: Oh yeah, 100%. They could speak to it more because of the limitation of being in that space. I couldn’t even be on the trailer.
DC: I was going to say, were you just watching the monitor outside?
BB: It isn’t the most ideal scenario, but that’s just like a lot of things. That’s just how it had to happen.
Andrew Duensing: And early on, I mean, there were times we talked about cutting the trailer in half. Then we realized very quickly that the trailer would probably just collapse and never go back together if we took it apart. But as we honed in on our approach, we realized everything was grounded in Lena’s experience and Lena’s perspective. So, taking the camera outside of the trailer started to not make sense anymore because we really wanted to feel the entrapment of the situation.
And then, of course, we were just basically on top of each other the whole time.
Dakota Gorman: Normally, I know this is audio, but I would be starfish, and then someone would be underneath my legs. But no complaints. [Laughs]
DC: That’s so cool.
DG: Yeah, exactly. It’s so cool. I tell Brock all the time, and he’s like, “Shut up.” But it was 11 to 12 days. I was crying every single day after being on set because of how happy I was. And I went home every night after we filmed and watched a horror movie, and so I stayed in the space that it was the dream, the dream.
DC: Well, and you had such an incredible role, especially when the first half is all you screaming and throwing your body around and being what I called a feral femme. I just want to hear more about getting into Lena’s head and just being by yourself for a lot of this movie.
DG: Yeah. I study with Margie Haber, and all of my training with her, I think, led up to what we were able to do on that set. She’s so big on being present and listening. And that’s so much of what Lena does. She’s just listening and taking in the environment, and being specific. So I just kind of really tried to create that world. But what was fun is I didn’t need all the answers as an actor because she has no answers.
So I got to really play with that. And as far as the intensity, I love physicality. I love being feral and crazy and wild. To have the complete playground to do that was another part of the dream. So yeah, I dunno. I loved it. It’s amazing
BB: When she did the writing on the ground part, which was super rad, we did that in three takes. The first two takes, she knocked it out of the park. Then she went back into the room, and we’re like, “OK, let’s move on.” I was like, “That was awesome. I just want to go talk to her real quick.” And I went over and I showed her basically the subway scene from Possession.
DC: Ooooooh!
BB: I was like, “I’m not going to say anything to you because we have it, we have it 100%, but I want you to just watch this and I’m going to hang out back here. And then when you want to come out, if you want to try and do it again, having watched that, let’s just see what happens.”
We had a little bit of time, which was super rare on this. Then she came out, and we used that third take. We used the entire thing. When it was happening, I was just like, “Oh my God.” I could feel vomit in my throat coming up because I couldn’t believe I was putting this person through this. But also, I’m feeling the intensity on such a visceral level.
DG: I need to piggyback off that. It’s funny he had that emotion. I had the exact opposite experience, which in the script, that wasn’t a moment that was inflated in any way. It was kind of like she’s in pain, but it’s more focused on what [Clive] is saying to her. And I think we discovered that in the moment. So that was not improvised, but embellished in the moment.
I don’t know if you know this movie, Teaching Mrs. Tingle. Does anyone remember that movie? It’s an absurd movie where these teenagers tie up their teacher and hold her hostage. There’s a scene where one of the girls is at the end of the bed, and she’s like, “Oh, I’ll be possessed.” I saw that when I was eight or something, and I was like, “I want that. I want to be possessed.”
There are nights when I’ve been drunk, and I’m like, “You guys, I’ll be possessed.” And my friends are like, “Please don’t.” In Spain, my friends tied me up with bedsheets and left me in a room while they watched Game of Thrones because they were like, “She’s doing her weird possession thing.”
And that day on set was another day I cried. I was like, “I’ve literally been wanting this since I was nine years old, and I’m doing it now, and it may never happen again.” I’m getting emotional.
BB: Also, that’s why she got the job. We didn’t want her to feel like the dams in distress at all. In Dakota’s self-tape, the moment that she comes on, it was like, “Oh, she’s a badass. That is who we need.”
DC: In the beginning, it’s kind of this nostalgic structure of the damsel in distress, but redefined through Brock’s lens.
DG: I just think he did it so organically. It didn’t feel forced. Watching Hellcat, you don’t know who to trust. There are moments where it’s like, “What is she hiding?” I liked that, and I had no anticipation of that. And building up the stigma, so to speak, against Clive’s character and what he might be, and seeing that shift. I think even though it is very empowering to women, it gave Clive and men like that a safe space, too. There are these loving, masculine people in the world. I have a lot more to say, but it would spoil Hellcat for sure. But I was aware of it, and I’m so proud to be part of something that feels so powerful but feminine.
BB: I have a daughter who’s four years old, so also to me, this movie, from beginning to end, was about a father and a daughter, even with Dakota as a proxy daughter. He wants to take care of her. He couldn’t be there for his daughter when something really bad happened. So yeah, that’s what makes the movie feel incredibly emotional to me.
DC: Well, and I love moments like where she hits the switch and he explains that he and his wife used to do karaoke. It’s like, “Oh, he’s not a monster. He’s just a weird, nice dad dude.”
BB: [Todd Terry] did that so well. He has these moments where he’s got this darkness to him, but then he’s this sweetheart that has just been manipulated by somebody, by people, by ideas, because he’s by himself. He doesn’t have anyone. He is out there on his own. And that happens to people, for real.
Categorized: Interviews
