Chucky, Annabelle even Robert, the horror genre is not short of scary dolls and here comes another addition in HEIDI. When two pranksters come across the creepy doll, their attachment to it becomes unmoveable as the presence of the doll becomes increasingly sinister against the pair and those around them.

Killer doll, found footage and an unknown cast. HEIDI doesn’t start strong and proves that the found footage genre is well and truly dead. It’s easy to see where HEIDI went so wrong; taking a seen-it-all before story against a cheap recording style that has hammered the genre, it never really succeeds in grabbing your attention to fully appreciate the film makers goal at creating a small horror entry that feels more of a student film than anything to compete with the genre. In different grounds, the independent film could warrant a watch for hardcore fans of horror. The obnoxious leads are never too annoying and while this was evidently filmed on a shoe string budget, the effects are rather impressively natural. Even the sounding is artfully mastered to bring an aura of tension to proceedings.

While there’s nothing instantly wrong with HEIDI, the doll has more moveable parts than ANNABELLE and it does have some effectively chilling moments, it ultimately fails to bring anything new and in doing so feels tired. If this was released a decade ago, it would have struggled for an audience but now that the found footage market has dwindled, it may see a small following come its way but for anyone wanting a good scare, look elsewhere. Forgettable but not terrible, HEIDI slides into the basement unnoticed and won’t be a hidden gem to those who find it.