As one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen, Al Pacino has long since earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants, but it remains a mystery why he’s dedicated so much time and effort to starring in a procession of widely-panned thrillers that very rarely see the inside of a theater, with Hangman just one of many examples.
Surely the Academy Award-winning legend isn’t strapped for cash and needs the money, and it can’t be because he’s not being offered any juicy roles in better projects given the fact that he’s Al goddamned Pacino, so the questions remain. Make no mistake, director Johnny Martin’s serial killer story is resolutely terrible from start to finish, but the premise has inevitably ensured that it’s taken to the Netflix charts like a duck to water.
Per FlixPatrol, Hangman has instantly nabbed itself a prime spot on the platform’s worldwide watch-list since being added to the library, which includes a Top 10 berth in the United Kingdom. Every bit as straightforward as it sounds, the plot revolves around a murder spree being carried out by someone who uses the titular children’s game as their inspiration.
Even a supporting cast that includes the always-watchable Karl Urban and Sara Shahi couldn’t save Hangman from disaster, with a four percent score and 29 percent audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes a damning indictment of just how bad the film truly was. And yet, serial killer content is all the rage these days and has been for some time, so it was always going to be in with a decent shot and riding a renewed wave of momentum.