This survival thriller-horror starts in “what would you do?” mode, as a young woman wakes up in the back of a moving camper van with some sort of hideous wound on her arm. Well, what would you do? Lena (Dakota Gorman) approaches things fairly logically, first checking out her surroundings: under other circumstances the trailer would be quite charming, if slightly kitschy – floral curtains, varnished wooden panels, a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug and family photographs. Closer inspection reveals less homely details: conspiracy magazines and lurid novels, which in the presumed abduction scenario in which Lena finds herself, are hardly reassuring.

When a disembodied voice begins to communicate with her, telling her that she has an hour to get to hospital before the veiny trails progressing from the wound on her arm reach her heart, she asks reasonable questions, which are met with cryptic replies and evasive half answers. The voice is emanating from the head of a taxidermised coyote type of beastie mounted on the wall, and it’s pretty clear this is the voice of the driver and apparent kidnapper. Naturally, the full situation is a little more layered than it initially seems.

A big question for the viewer is whether the film will ever leave the confines of the trailer. A single-location film is a double-edged sword: it’s a high-wire act for the film-maker that, if written and performed well, can ably demonstrate their ability to master the essentials. Fail to sustain the audience’s interest, however, and you’re stuck without recourse to the bells and whistles that can help jolly things along. Hellcat does eventually leave the trailer, and probably needs to, after it reaches the end of the line in terms of ideas, even if it never repeats the tension of its opening sequence. But by this point we’re sufficiently invested in Lena that we want to know how it turns out – which is basically the point.

• Hellcat is on Shudder and AMC+ from 14 August.