film review: HELL'S KITTY

by joe x young

Just about claws through.
 
It’s a missed opportunity at the very least when what was a reasonably successful web series has the opportunity to be a fun movie but falls just short of the mark because of a single oversight. The webisodes were probably fine as they were, with a hefty supply of well-known horror alumni taking part and a silly basic premise of a demonic cat that is jealous of any woman entering her owner’s life. Where it goes seriously wrong is in the entire editing process as it comes across that aside from a few minor tweaks this is just the webisodes poorly stitched together, which makes for a bit of a mess. Apart from the untidiness of presentation this is a good intentioned film and one which will certainly have horror fans of a certain age pointing at the screen and laughing in disbelief at the antics of the likes of Doug Jones, Lee Meriwether, Courtney Gains, Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Berryman among many other cult stars, scream queens and even a celebrated porn star.  It’s an excellent cast of supporting actors, all of whom look as if they had a good time and certainly a better time than I had watching it.

Allegedly based on real life incidents, Nicholas Tana is ‘Nick’, the owner of a cat called ‘Angel’ who is anything but angelic as she really is a comic-book example of a bad kitty who kills her way through any potential love interests Nick may have, to the point where it’s decided that the cat requires an exorcism, the exorcists are Bill Oberst Jr and Doug Jones as ‘Father Blatty’ and ‘Father Damien’, see what they did there? Yep, that’s right, and if you thought that was fun there’s ‘Detective Pluto’ played by Michael Berryman and so many other chuckle-worthy names and pop-culture references that it’s hard to keep up. I can see how this worked as webisodes, as they would be isolated moments of WTF, but when clustered like this it just doesn’t work as well, which is not to say that it’s a dead loss, just that it’s a bit overpowering. Overall the film was ok, but with proper editing it could have been so much better.

Would I recommend it? Well… IF you’re into gore, sexual innuendo and nerdy ‘in-jokes’ this is going to be your sort of thing. There’s plenty to see, plenty to laugh at and it’s a generally fun ride so if you can forgive the choppy editing then have at it.

Hell’s Kitty is available now as DVD and VOD from their website and other places, oh, and the website has a drinking game if you’re that way inclined ;)
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https://hellskitty.com/

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