Hellkat stars Sarah T. Cohen as Katrina ‘HellKat’ Bash, a former MMA fighter on the road to nowhere specific. After her car breaks down she catches a ride with an eccentric man and their short trip ends poorly for one of them. She ends up helping at a dive bar while the patrons drop not too subtle hints about her situation. One thing leads to another and Katrina–along with other fighters–are pulled into an arena in Hell to fight for their very souls.

If that description sounds awesome and has you intrigued, you aren’t the only one. I’m a huge fan of horror and an even bigger fan of martial arts based action films with The Raid being one of my favorite movies. So, the thought of the two being combined into a single movie had me practically drooling. Unfortunately, this is an example of intention far outweighing execution in which we get a muddled affair that tried to reach high but hit far below the belt.

The acting in Hellkat was mostly okay with none of it overtly bad. While Sarah Cohen does well enough as the main character, where she seems to be lacking in making Katrina imposing or intimidating. The same can be said for the rest of the cast. No one really stood out as scary or threatening and in a movie about Hell’s MMA that’s not a good thing at all. Even though he may not be menacing, special shout out does go out to Ryan Davies as the antagonist. He managed to chew through every scene he was in and seemed to enjoy himself while doing it.

Though the acting left plenty to be desired, there were moments that the actual fighting held up. Corinne Holt (stunt double for Hellkat) brought level of energy and experience to her fight scenes that helped elevate the film as a whole. The fights that didn’t involve her were far less dynamic and entertaining while the creature design was interesting enough, if only a little bland. Also, as time ticked on and fights played out I found myself counting down the time until the end credits.

The overall story is easy to understand, but the whiplash style of editing and cuts make it a bit rough to follow. At points, the film would jump to a new scene with no rhyme or set up and coupled with low overall lighting you end up with a visually drab experience. At least Hellkat‘s audio came through even and clear, even if the sound of the punches and kicks didn’t quite match the action on screen.

Hellkat had an awesome premise with some decent fighting but unfortunately for a movie that centers on demons of hell and a former MMA fighter, it’s ultimately boring which is worse than being just bad–at least if it’s bad, it could fall into the so bad it’s entertaining category.

3 out of 10