Heidi (2015)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Samuel Brian, Joei Fulco, Joey Bell
Directed by Daniel Ray
Director Daniel Ray swears that his film, Heidi, bears no copycat illusion to that of the spinoff of The Conjuring, in which the possessed doll Annabelle scared the piss out of viewers during its trailers and nowhere else, and for all intents and purposes, I fully believe him. Unfortunately, I have to lump this film alongside the majority of the other possessed doll flicks – with a fart and a smirk. Nice try, but ultimately nothing frightening here to see.
The movie follows two high school goons (Brian and Bell) who like to spend their time trying to scare and prank friends and family via their internet show, “Booya”…OK. After coming upon this infinitely creepy baby-doll (aren’t they all), the two lads experience some interesting occurrences as a result. Ray’s declaration of a non-existent budget and skeleton crew seems fitting, as this presentation is anemic of both frights and substance.
The two kids find the doll, they notice some sinister dealings, and ultimately people (and pets, which I’m NOT down with) are picked off by it. Now I’ll give credit where it’s due: The doll itself is frightening in nature, with its blacked-out eyes and eerie grin, complete with personalized pendant around its neck…and by the way, who in the HELL decided upon the name Heidi? Also, did anyone notice the fact that I haven’t pissed and moaned about the overindulgence of POV cameras in this one?
With a literal army of single-shot views in this film, you’re completely in the mix awaiting for little Heidi to bat an eye, or shift her skull…anything…anything? Hello, Heidi? I know that with a minimal to non-existent budget, your FX limitations are atomic at best, but it’s a given that when the video distortion hits, something will have changed, be it a movement by the doll or a shake and a scare…all been done before, and all registering on the “yawn-meter.”
I’m really not sure as to how or where to lead this review, simply due to the fact that it has the look and feel of seemingly every other found-footage horror flick out there – whip shots, distant-down-the-hall scares, and people who absolutely REFUSE to put the camera down in the face of impending danger. Scatter around about a half a dozen “what the f**ks?” and you’ve got the all-being, all-knowing, crowning glory of first-person fright-films. I really don’t mean to be this dismissive of a film that was obviously created on a minuscule allocation, but it doesn’t suffer from such downfalls, rather suffering from the notion that I’ve seen these type of frights WAY too many times, and they simply don’t register on any scale anymore.
In all things spooky and scary, Heidi would be quite the creepy film had it been released before the more high-profile pics before it, and it simply boils down to an issue of timing (and underworked frights) – other than those two BLINDING factoids, we just might have had the start of a beautiful friendship, Heidi.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
