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I wanted to like this movie, so I was very patient, but after an hour I finally had to give up. Bad script, bad acting, bad cinematography, bad music... I could not find anything that I liked about this movie! For example, the last straw for me was a scene in which one of the characters (a baseball player who was in prison for losing his temper with the umpire, beating him with the bat in the middle of a game)... he is attacked in prison and is dying in his friends arms, when he says, "strike three!", then he goes limp and dies. Come on! Seriously?! Don't waste your time with this movie! Unless you enjoy mindless movies with bad clichés and no redeeming qualities.

I read some of the other comments that people left about this film and found many of them to be very biased for or against. I think it is pretty silly to criticize the film for being too "Christian" when it is of course written by a Christian author. That is like complaining that your ice cream is cold, creamy and sweet. If anything, the Christian message was toned down. Some of the criticism was that the movie was too much like an after school special. I suppose that this criticism is intended to complain against the movie being written with a moral and with the intent of reaching a youthful audience. But again I ask, why criticize something for being what it is intended to be? This movie clearly WAS written to teach a moral and reach a youth audience, and it did a decent job of it, all the while keeping the viewer entertained. Frankly, anyone who believes that "secular movies" are not "preaching" a message are naive. Every writer, intentionally or unintentionally inevitably pours their beliefs and biases into their work. In our society this is fine, unless the message happens to be from a Christian perspective. Then it is branded as "preachy" or "religious" and dismissed as propaganda by the disingenuous as though all other genres are innocent of such bias. I enjoy watching both Christian AND secular movies... but I am not duped into believing that one is "selling" a message and the other is not.

I've seen many Christian films and they often suffer from bad scripts, bad acting, bad production and bad soundtrack. Some get one or two aspects right, rarely do they get them all right. This movie had good production, good soundtrack and a good script. Overall, the acting was good also, though Frank Peretti should not have allowed himself to be cast in this film. I love Frank's books, he is an awesome writer, but we can't expect to be good at everything and movie acting is not his talent. He played the character way over the top, becoming a parody... like someone out of an episode of Scooby Doo. Had he done the wise thing and insisted on a professional actor to play the professor it would have improved this movie, but don't let this one sour point stop you from seeing this film. Especially if you are a parent with 12 to 16 year olds, because this is a movie that you can watch with them without ever having to worry about surprise nudity or foul language. I get so annoyed with writers who have no imagination and believe that a movie is unauthentic if the characters don't curse every third word from their mouths. I see Bogart, Cagney, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne films that are just as compelling today as back in the day when they were made and guess what!! ...No Foul Language! Imagine that! I'd like to see more films made like Hangman's Curse that are able to keep me interested without resorting to swears and sex. For it's genre and intended audience, I give it a slightly generous 8 out of 10.

One of the criteria by which I measure the quality of a movie is the ability for me to watch it again and again without the "you've seen it once, you've seen it" attitude. This is just such a movie... I can watch it and then a year later see it again and enjoy it just as much. This is an entertaining film that if it were not a true story, would seem contrived, but the fact that it is a true story only adds to the appeal of this film. Perhaps the only negative one might have to about this movie is the very dated style and soundtrack. Personally, I enjoy the "datedness" of this movie... kind of like aged fine wine, it just makes it better! If you see the movie then be sure to read the book "The cross and the switchblade" and to also read the book by Nicky Cruz called "Run baby run". Both can be found on Amazon.com and are even better than the movie.