Mad Fate (3½ Stars)

This is the 22nd film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

"Mad Fate" is a film which has a lot of good ideas, but the pacing is uneven. When the film begins it looks like a comedy. There was laughter throughout the theatre. As the film progresses it's obvious that it's a serious psychological thriller.

The leading character, who isn't named, is a psychic. He knows, for instance, when people will die, but he attempts to change their fate by tricking God. I need to give an explanation by describing the comical opening scene. He's foreseen that a prostitute will die. To stop this happening he buries her in a large plastic bag that contains enough air to breathe, and he performs burial rites over her fake grave. This fails, because the woman is scared and frees herself, hitting him on the head with a shovel and driving away.

But the psychic visits the woman the next day and arrives just after she's been killed in her apartment by a serial killer. A pizza delivery boy arrives, and the psychic immediately knows that he's destined to commit a murder. The rest of the film is about the psychic trying to stop the man becoming a killer. Some of his methods border on insanity.

It's a strange film. Most of the people I spoke with highly praised it. I'm more critical, but it's a film that I'm willing to see again.