Mad Heidi

Starting with that first yodel, Mad Heidi is as crazy as it is, well, cheesy. The self-proclaimed Swissploitation action-splatterfest is all about illegal cheese, fascist rule, warrior nuns, and a madcap Casper Van Dien whose mustache-twirling villainy is as high as the Alps. Yet for all its silliness and over-the-top parodying, Mad Heidi should have been a lot crazier.

Mad Heidi is a crowdfunded project helmed by Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein. The indie movie parodies not only general exploitation films but specifically the good-natured Heidi stories of old (such as the sappy Shirley Temple classic). Here, Switzerland is under the fascist control of cheese-loving President Meili (Van Dien). When both Heidi's (Alice Lucy) freedom-loving grandfather and goat cheese-smuggling boyfriend are killed, Heidi transforms herself into a kick-ass fighter and goes after fierce retribution against Meili and his brutal regime. In short, cheese happens.

Mad Heidi is fun and silly. Mad Heidi was not made to promote the artform of cinematic splendor. This is a riotous goof that caters to a specific audience, a level on which Mad Heidi completely succeeds.

Crowdfunded faux-exploitation flick Mad Heidi is intended as a bit of dumb OTT fun. With its endless gags on everything Swiss (especially cheese), it is definitely dumb, but it's not nearly as much fun as I had hoped, the joke quickly wearing thinner than a slice of Emmental. Like Iron Sky (2012), with which it shares a similar vibe, the film suffers from a weak script and bad acting, and it only delivers sporadic gore when it would benefit from pushing the limits further and further with each subsequent scene.

Alice Lucy plays Heidi, who has been living in the Swiss mountains with her grandfather ever since her parents were killed in a rebellion against President Meili (Casper Van Dien) and his Nazi-like regime. When Heidi's boyfriend Goat Peter (Kel Matsena) is killed for trading in illegal cheese, Heidi takes revenge and is jailed as a result. After a daring escape, Heidi throws herself over a waterfall and is presumed dead; however, she survives the plunge, and is trained how to fight back against her oppressors by Swiss goddess Helvetia.

Mad Heidi wears it's exploitation influences on its sleeve - there's Nazis, nuns, dwarfs, a training montage and WIP action (we even get an Asian prisoner who is #701) - but the result lacks the grit and grime of the genuine article, the film's effectiveness further weakened by the puerile comedic elements: there's only so much cheese-based humour I can take.

Mad Heidi is trash! ... and that's a good thing. The film has a very high quality and thus leaves many other trash films behind. Actors, setting, cinematography - all great! Johannes Hartmann did a great job with the film and created a wonderful (Swiss) ploitation film that is at the forefront of the genre.

If you like Switzerland, you will love all the clichés. Cheese, chocolate or the Swiss army knife are just a few examples.

In terms of acting, Casper Van Dien and Max Rüdlinger stand out in particular. Van Dien plays the slimy "very Swiss leader" with great humor, while Rüdlinger, with his Swiss accent, plays Commander Knorr with exaggerated spite.

The cinematography shows the most beautiful sides of Switzerland, while the action comes along with lots of blood, splatter and killing jokes.

"I work for the industry" is a general term in LA if someone works for the movie industry (been there, done that). This movie originates from no industry. It is handcraftet with tons of love and effort and it reflects throughout the whole movie. I was very surprised. The crew is learning... but did their homework well with great professionalism and it turned out to be great fun to watch the outcome. If you are open for low budget independant movies with a mid budget feel... go see the movie. Will watch it again with friends and a couple of beers. And no, I'm not part of the crew and I'm not a crowdfunder. In general I don't even like the genre. But i've had to write this to add another POV after reading some of the negative comments.

This crowdfunded, swiss made exploitation movie, has almost everything one can hope for; splatter, clichés, memes, movie references and great visuals.

The amount of time and love invested in this movie really shines through. You can feel the filmmakers love for film. I was very impressed by the quality of the costumes, the sets, even the cgi. (Remembering it's a small production without any big companies involved and a budget that was crowdfunded) There are so many references to swiss culture beautifully incorporated.

This might be controversial and is probably more wishful thinking on my part but what I didn't like was that the film is in English. Of course it has to be to be view and enjoyed around the world, but as a swiss I believe swiss german could have made it much more hilarious. And probably also improved the acting. ( I got the feeling that because the non native english speakers had to speak english their acting suffered a little)

The acting in general varied. Over all it was not great but it also didn't have to be.

What I greatly disliked were the scene with the naked maid. (Portrayed by a swiss "performance artist"). It didn't add anything to the movie and every scene with her in it was like: Naked maid with big fake boobs enters the room - the men around the table start staring and salivating.

In conclusion: definitely worth a watch to not only support independent film makers but also have a fun evening with "the boys" (or girls) and a few beers.