Well this is not my cat. Found in Google search reacting to their feet. Granted this cats reactions do seem odd but as someone who has 3 cats I can say they do so weird crap sometimes. But I can see in some of this cat's movements and posture why you'd say that since I've known many people who have done such things But since I have no idea of who these people are I can't say 100%. Typically I recognize those ones and even though it looks that way I've seen them act in weird ways to certain aromas as well but there's a good chance that someone we can't see is doing something else to cause this reaction as well so idk.
In looking closer at this I notice at the end I can see the tail in between back legs and up under stomach and that's a fear reaction for sure. Didn't spot that tail thing before so you're likely right on this one. Wish I had noticed that before. I've seen some messed up blatant gifs of cruelty but I don't always put much merit into movements since some can be weird with aromas and move funny when playing with each other and etc but a tail tucked up under stomach is always cruelty. Crap!
Oh I assumed you were serious when I observed the cat's tail tucked between back legs and curled under stomach. I've seen other cats make some of the other movements since they are strange little turds but that tail thing I noticed just at the very end. You alerted me to it even though you had other ideas.
You might be interested in a similar behaviour in certain breeds of dogs, especially bulldogs, known as 'trancing' One example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Js37JtrBMw
