When you describe yourself as “a modern grindhouse epic” and “the world’s first Swissploitation film” you instantly have my attention. That’s the case with “Mad Heidi”, the patently trashy and gleefully gory ode to the grindhouse exploitation films that found a home in rundown movie theaters during the 1970s. Now audiences will have a chance to experience it for themselves during a special one-night engagement on Wednesday, June 21st courtesy of Fathom Events.
Co-directors (and first-time filmmakers) Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein crowdfunded their movie and put it together over the course of several years. “No studios. No corporations involved. Just love for film.” But don’t let that fool you. The movie is actually very well made. It’s nicely shot, has a good production design, and features some impressively gory effects, all while maintaining the throwback style it’s going for.
Hartmann and Klopfstein have clearly done their homework and put great effort into recreating the grindhouse experience. From the bad writing, corny acting, and gratuitous content to more specific details such as the cheap grainy intro, the funky 1970s music, and even an unexpected instance of film burn. It’s all glaringly self-aware and it’s custom made to be seen with an audience who knows exactly what they’re in for.
The utterly absurd story goes something like this. 24-year-old Heidi (Alice Lucy) lives a cozy and simple life high up in the beautiful Swiss Alps. She lives with her loving but overprotective grandfather Alpöhi (David Schofield) and is not-so-secretly dating a local goat-herder fittingly named Goat Peter (Kel Matsena). Altogether it makes for a sweet idyllic setting plucked straight out of a storybook.
But following what may be my favorite opening credits sequence of the year so far, we quickly learn that this dystopian Switzerland is no sweet and innocent fairytale land. The country is ran by a ruthless President (Casper Van Dien) who is always addressed by his terrified underlings as “Our Very Swiss Leader”. He’s a megalomaniacal dictator who believes dairy is his key to world domination and that lactose intolerance is a threat to the Swiss way of life. And yes, it’s every bit as absurd as it sounds.
When Goat Peter is caught illegally selling goat cheese like a crack dealer the President’s second in command, the cartoonishly sadistic Kommandant Knorr (Max Rüdlinger), has him publicly executed. And after learning of his relationship with Heidi, Knorr hunts her down, burns her house to the ground, and leaves her grandfather to die. She’s taken away to a women’s prison ran by the oppressive Warden Rottweiler (Katja Kolm). There she befriends a fellow prisoner named Klara (Almar G. Sato) and absorbs the abuse of two rather beefy cellmates, all while planning her escape.
The utterly wacky final half of the movie follows Heidi satisfying her insatiable hunger for revenge. Hartmann and Klopfstein ramp up the silliness and the violence as the President merciless pushes for dairy dominance and Heidi trains “Kill Bill” style into an ultimate killing machine. It’s hard not to appreciate the willingness to embrace the ridiculous. And some of the comedy bits are nothing short of hysterical.
That said, over time the central conceit gradually begins to wear thin and the movie slowly starts to run out of steam. Still its admirable that the filmmakers would stick so close to their vision. In doing so they pull from a variety of fun B-quality genre influences including spaghetti westerns, blaxploitation, and chop-socky cinema. And while it’s little more than disposable entertainment, I can see it being a good time. As long as you keep your expectations in check.
VERDICT – 3 STARS
Keith & the Movies 