Mad Heidi (2022)

Mad Heidi is the kind of gloriously unhinged midnight movie that commits so hard to its own absurdity—an evil cheese-fascist regime in storybook Switzerland—that you can’t help but admire the nerve and enjoy the ride. It’s shot with real craft, using gorgeous alpine landscapes and surprisingly sturdy production design to make the insanity feel tactile, while the cast plays it straight enough to let the comedy and carnage land. The vibe is gleefully brash and punky, splashing action, splatter, and satire together with the momentum of a crowd-pleaser that knows exactly what it is. If you have a taste for cult cinema that’s loud, gory, and proudly ridiculous, this one goes down easy; if you’re allergic to B-movie excess, it may be a bridge too far.

Mad Heidi is clearly trying to be a gleefully tasteless, grindhouse-style parody: a Swiss folklore remix where “cheese fascism” becomes an excuse for splattery action, absurd comedy, and DIY fantasy-horror worldbuilding. When it’s firing, the sheer commitment to the premise and the scrappy, over-the-top energy can be genuinely amusing, especially if you enjoy midnight-movie chaos more than polish. The problem is it’s uneven, with a saggy middle stretch where the joke wears thin and the pacing starts to feel like it’s killing time between the good bits. If you need tight storytelling, consistent tone, or action that builds cleanly, this will likely frustrate you; if you’re happy with messy, low-budget, “did they really do that?” camp, you’ll probably have more fun than you should.