Mad Heidi

The film also looks spectacular. Eric Lehner’s cinematography zooms, whips, pans, and glides over the beautiful retro-industrial Swiss town. The production design makes the locale quite picture-esque, like something seen out of a glistening “Wish You Were Here” postcard. The brutal carnage that then punctuates this fictional town dissolves that illusion in a wonderfully cartoony fashion. The CGI is also quite good, especially as far as the blood is concerned. Leaning hard into its zany exploitation roots, the viscera is never meant to be realistic but rather so over-the-top it is stupefyingly amusing. In this regard, the special effects team delivers the goods.

As a throwback exploitation title and being billed as the first Swisspolitation movie ever, Mad Heidi must live or die by its action. Here, once again, Hartman and Klopfstein have understood the assignment. The film is jam-packed with shootouts, poleaxe fights, hand-to-hand combat, and one fiery explosion so ridiculously overblown it must be seen to be believed. And, of course, there’s the requisite training montage. It is all exciting and goofy and fun.

Mad Heidi film still

“…jam-packed with shootouts, poleaxe fights, hand-to-hand combat, and one fiery explosion…”

To that end, the cast is stellar. Alice Lucy makes for an excellent wronged femme fatale lead. She’s fierce, sweet, and handles the action believably (as believable as a film like this gets). Casper Van Dien is having the time of his life as the big bad here. He sports a fluctuating accent, which is hysterical. The way he describes the coziness of the prison cells is also very funny. Most importantly, the man is still menacing, coming across as a real threat to Heidi and her people. Kommandant Knorr is the military leader, and Max Rüdlinger plays him as a buffoon. Matsena doesn’t have a prominent role but makes the most of his limited time, while Almar G. Sato makes Klara, a friend Heidi makes in the slammer, truly sympathetic.

Iron Sky and Kung Fury got drunk at a bar one night, and the bouncing baby that resulted is Mad Heidi. If one enjoys those titles or the likes of Machete or Black Dynamite, then the first-ever Swissploitation film will prove a total blast. The acting, effects, cinematography, and world-building are all incredible from start to finish. Here’s hoping to see more Swissploitations gracing screens soon!

Mad Heidi is a 2023 Award This! WTF Indie like “What the F**k is This Movie Even?”