Mad Heidi

It is hard to criticize a film which starts off boasting about how it was crowd-funded by the common folk, with no interference from the big corporations or studios. Hard. But not impossible. The first red flag is that the uber-high ratings from the early posted member reviews do not match the ratings left by members who saw the film later, gave much lower ratings, but did not bother to leave a review. The explanation? Mad Heidi is loaded to the brim with raw energy and great expectations. But very little of that actually translates into a movie that anyone would care to waste 90 minutes on. The script seems like to have been written by someone trying to piece together the best parts of Max Max, Monty Python, and every Kung Fu film you have ever seen. The result is supposed to be unique and fresh. Instead it basically re-invents 1960's "experimental cinema," and does not do a very good job even at that. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

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.

"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.

It goes without saying that you need to like or at least be familiar with the "exploitation" genre to fully enjoy this movie; a soft spot for "trash" movies like Iron Sky (the first one, not the terrible sequel) and similar "trashy" B-movies also helps.

I however disagree with the authors/directors of Mad Heidi that they single-handedly invented the "Swissploitation" genre in 2022 with Mad Heidi.

Older Swiss movies should take the credit for pioneering this movie niche, for example (my list below is by no means exhaustive):

• Sommersprossen (1968, German title)
• L'inconnu de Shandigor (1967, French title)
• Several early movies by the Swiss director Erwin C. Dietrich, mostly released in the 70s and 80s (to be fair to Mad Heidi, many of Erwin's movies were shot abroad, not in Switzerland)

There are also newer examples, like these more extreme Swiss splatter niche movies:

• Projekt Fleisch (1999)
• Nutshot (2019)

Mad Heidi is another good, updated entry to the genre with many nods and references to famous directors like Tarantino or Rodriguez. The two Mad Heidi directors are quite open about this aspect and even list movies that influenced Mad Heidi's story telling and plot, namely:

Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill (Vol. 2), Danger 5, Lady Snowblood, Heidi (the classic 1937 and 1952 versions, obviously, since Mad Heidi is a trash/horror parody on the original story), Coffy, Foxy Brown...

The movie doesn't take itself too seriously and makes fun of Switzerland and Swiss clichés like chocolate, cheese and xenophobia, much like earlier domestic classics such as the comedy "Schweizermacher" (aka "The Swiss Makers" internationally, 1978). The more you know about Swiss cliches, the more you will enjoy the funny details and easter eggs in Mad Heidi.

But rest assured: Even if you are only vaguely familiar with the original Heidi saga/plot and the fact that many Swiss take their cheese seriously you can laugh at most jokes.

The splatter/special effects, the level of detail in many movie props (e.g. The "final boss" Neutral-izer, a word pun on Switzerland's political neutrality axiom) and the performances are quite good; some are even very good - especially considering the tiny budget of just around USD/CHF 3 million (much of the total budget was raised by crowdfunding).

(For a quick comparison: Other genre movies like the trashy Iron Sky II sequel cost six times that amount and are much worse. Starting with a confusing script...but I digress.)

The overarching revenge plot in Mad Heidi is quite simple and/or predictable. Some critics may dismiss the entire Mad Heidi movie as pure "fan service" - this is however very understandable since much of the total budget was raised using crowdfunding methods, as discussed above.

We may even get a sequel one day since the open ending leaves many avenues to explore.

I rate this movie 6/10 cheese wheels. Maybe it's even worth 7+/10 if you really like this genre of movies.

PS: In order to reach a broader international audience (and since many foreign actors like genre specialist Casper Van Dien have leading roles) the movie was shot in English, with only a few sentences or words in Swiss German mixed into the dialogues. Surprising at first, but understandable given the movie's ambitious global distribution target.

Mad Heidi is a simple revenge story set in a world obsessed with dairy products where the lactose intolerant are shunned, publicly humiliated and even taken away to re-education camps and tortured with cheese. This daft film romps away in its own bewildering world of 'Swissploitation' for an undemanding 90mins and is well produced (particularly considering the means of funding) and features good cinematography and fight choreography with strong performances from Alice Lucy and Rebecca Dyson Smith, as the cruel Lutz. Bizarre, absurd and the most original thing that's been along in a while. 'Rest in cheese, b*tch!'