Heidi

'Heidi' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing and quite creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive. Same with it being found footage.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws are here present in those films, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Heidi' is very weak, with a plethora of problems (fairly big ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There are however a couple of decent, even good, qualities in 'Heidi'.

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky, despite being wasted by the nauseating effects of the excessively shaking camera work and editing.

Best thing about 'Heidi' is the doll, which is quite creepy. Liked the opening, which was attention grabbing and kept me hooked. Which is why it is such a shame that 'Heidi' went downhill so drastically.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the histrionic and stiff acting.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace goes to a standstill after the promising opening and drags on forever, never recovering. The second half is interminable. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense.

A lot of 'Heidi' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical, irritating and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending finishes the film on an incomplete and confused whimper. The whole of 'Heidi' felt unfinished but especially so at the end where it just ends with too much left hanging in the air.

The more psychological elements are unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show the horror of the subject. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is pretty leaden, got the sense their heart was not in it, and the music doesn't really fit.

Concluding, very weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

I am not a fan of found footage but I do enjoy the killer doll trope. This film has most of the usual found footage clichés, the biggest offender of course being that this didn't need to be a found footage film. Your main characters are Jack and Ryan, two internet pranksters who switch from being the most monotone narrators to terribly obnoxious and unlikable. The films pacing is fairly slow, and while events are occurring through out the film they are often lacking any real content. The main character seems to switch between believing the doll is evil and defending the supernatural events as coincidence. The movie is relatively low on gore and has little to no jump scares, both of which I consider plus 1's , though different people have different tastes so I will let you decide if that makes you want to see the film more or less. Quick Summary: Outside of detective Harris, the acting was all around poor, it lacked any real scary moments, the story feels empty, the sound work can switch from quiet talking to loud static sound effects blasting your speaker, and the camera-work is... well it's found footage.

This could've been a classic low-budget found footage film, but the use of soundtrack and cheap jump scares (with large variations in volume) hold it back from greatness. If it hadn't been for those bits, I probably would've scored it much higher. The plot is also a bit of a tired trope, but most of the execution shows a lot of creativity and passion. It does manage to feel special and unique, despite the typical premise. It features. a great atmosphere and builds a sense of dread, helplessness, and terror.

I will also say, the climax scared the @#$% out of me! Although I think some people will probably find it kind of hokey. Personally, I found it genuinely terrifying and my heart was beating out of my chest.

If you like low-budget FF, definitely give it a watch.

Definitely one of the better films in the FF genre.

I admit that I thought this was going to be awful after the irritating opening scene. My low expectations dipped when they found the doll, predicting a series back and forth shots where it's moved or disappeared. Instead it became more creative and creepy.

It was visually interesting, and actually quite varied in terms of locations and events. Yes the pacing stumbles at times, but it picks up in the third act. The ending (not the mid-credit scene) was genuinely unsettling. At the same time it added a bit of logic to the events of the film (I.e, how does a little doll actually do this stuff).

The acting is a mixed bag, and it's a bit worrying seeing children and animals looking distressed for real. It's certainly not without its problems, but it ends up being a fairly satisfying and unsettling story with characters generally behaving realistically.

What 600 words to say here huh?

Well, i'm surprised that I just finally found this. Why there's no one mentioned it, I guess, low budget means low marketing ability too.

Ok, recommended for the addict of subtle creepiness that'll last forever, but not for slasher gory blood splattered dubious jumpscare etc.

The ending has the elements of future part 2 but I doubt it will be as catchy as this one. With majority are into slasher gory type of horror sub-genre of today's horror fans, so enjoy this while it still last yeah.

About the film, for found footage horror sub-genre, this one is pretty clean, I mean the hyper usage of shaky camera or glitching screen, is not that much in this movie, that one, made me proud to hand this one a 6/10 rating.