Once upon a time, James Cullen Bressack was one of my favorite horror filmmakers (Hate Crime, Pernicious, Bethany, To Jennifer, and Blood Craft.) And now? He’s become one of my favorite thrillers/action/crimes and even comedy directors after reviewing such movies as Fortress, Surviving the Game, Murder Anyone? and now Hot Seat. Not to say Bressack has abandoned his disturbing cinema seat with Hot Seat, however it’s wonderful to see this expansion since I first checked out his terror filled found-footage library of work years ago.

The story begins suddenly with a dramatic car-bomb explosion as Kevin Dillon’s character, Orlando Friar, returns home from his daily run, launching this nail-biting narrative that promises even more excitement ahead. While Orlando questions the noise heard as he enters the front door, that immediately takes a back burner to his rocky home life, currently revolving around his teen daughter’s birthday party. With a last-minute commitment to go to the office, dedicated wife/mother Kim has no choice but to serve her distracted husband with divorce papers.

As if Orlando’s day could get any worse, he arrives at work (an IT specialist) taking calls from customers experiencing software, connection and service issues. It doesn’t take long to discover that Orlando is a pro. A pro hacker that is, who takes it upon himself to illegally infiltrate consumer systems and correct the problems quickly. And perhaps…steal data? Well, not this morning, although we came to find out that Mr. Friar has a history of cyber crimes after being willfully naïve to a New York based start-up which instructed him to steal 401k benefits through hacking countless servers under the guise of making millions. The downfall of his career, but Orlando has been walking the straight and narrow since turning state’s evidence. With an occasional system breach every now and then, he never predicted his life would change (or possibly end) on this fateful weekend.

Greeted by his jokester colleague Enzo (another fine performance from Michael Welch who appears in Bressack’s Blood Craft), the disastrous afternoon begins when a suspicious food delivery man shows up with Enzo’s order and dismisses himself after a quick glance around the office. Realizing his sandwich order is incorrect, Enzo leaves as Orlando sits back comfortably in his chair which then triggers a mechanism underneath turning himself onto the “hot seat.”

And now…we’re in business!

Remember Phone Booth, with Collin Farrell? His sharp witted, free-wheeling character found himself in hot water the moment he answered a call from a phone booth…the moment all hell broke loose. Confined to the receiver by a mad man pulling his strings, Dillon’s charming Orlando is also immobilized as he is forced to commit covert digital attacks by a twisted psychopath who not only threatens to blow him apart, but his family as well. As tension rises, the cast—Mel Gibson as the bomb squad leader and Shannen Doherty as the police chief—join forces to stop the terrorism apparently spearheaded by Orlando, for good.

That is…if Orlando is the maniacal reboot of Ted Kaczynski. And if it’s not him, who on earth is causing these horrific attacks? Please don’t Google the answer…just sit back (or stand!) and watch the chaos commence.