A monotonous serial killer thriller colder than a cadaver launches a citywide streaming manhunt

It’s an ironclad certainty that any serial killer thriller – no matter how good, bad, or mediocre it proves to be in the end – is guaranteed to entice audiences to give it a whirl on streaming, which says more about our collective obsession with mass murder than anything else. True to form, then, To Catch a Killer is a certifiable on-demand success story.

Per FlixPatrol, co-writer and director Damián Szifron’s leaden examination into a spate of shocking deaths has emerged as one of the Top 10 most-watched movies among iTunes users in the United States, with strong performances from a talented cast including Shailene Woodley, Ben Mendelsohn, Jovan Adepo, and Ralph Ineson still failing to elevate it above mediocrity.

As a large volume of these types of stories tend to do, the narrative finds a police officer with a troubled and tortured past recruited by the FBI’s lead investigator to assist in the tracking down and ultimate apprehension of a deranged killer who’s been causing chaos and leaving a trail of bodies behind on the streets of Baltimore.

From there, the lines between professional duty and personal attachment become increasingly blurred as the clock begins to tick down to the kill count rising ever higher. To Catch a Killer doesn’t bring much newness or inventiveness to a subgenre that’s been more than well-worn at this point, but the promise of its title alone was always going to ensure it made a splash on the streaming circuit in spite of reviews that could generously be described as pleasant at best.