Hellboy has received a number of film treatments since his creation by Mike Mignola in 1994, when the character appeared in Dark Horse Comics’ “Hellboy: Seed of Destruction.” “Hellboy: The Crooked Man” is the fourth film adaptation of the comic character. While Mignola was involved in all the adaptations, his greatest involvement was in Crooked Man, which is closer to the horror movie interpretation that Mignola wanted. The original material, of the same name, was a three-part arc released on 2008.
It’s Appalachia, 1958. Hellboy (Jack Kesy – “The Killer”) and Agent Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph – “Resident Evil”), traveling in a boxcar, are taking a captured entity back to headquarters. However, as they pass through the mountainous wilderness, the creature breaks free and, in the ensuing battle, causes the boxcar to derail. After losing the entity, they wander until they come upon a ramshackle community. The place is dominated by an evil spirit known as The Crooked Man (Martin Bassindale – “Black Bag”), who captures hapless souls for the Devil. He was a cheat and miser in life and now sells people’s souls in return for a penny each.
While Hellboy and Bobbie are talking to the villagers, getting the lowdown on the miserable place, a wanderer named Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White – “Civil War”) appears, having returned home after 20 years and looking for his father and a girlfriend, Cora Fisher (Hannah Margetson – “Min kamp”), who is rumored to have become a witch. The three set out to find Cora, and hellish trouble ensues.
Writer/Director Brian Taylor (“Crank”) working with creator and co-writer Mignola, has taken a very different approach from the blockbuster style of Guillermo del Toro (“Hellboy” and Hellboy: The Golden Army”) or Neil Marshall (the 2019 reboot of “Hellboy”). This is a modest film without the extravagant set pieces of its predecessors – or the budget needed for them. This Hellboy is down-to-earth, a chain smoker (rolls his own) who wisecracks in a more natural way. The color palate of the film is mostly blues and grays, with many set under-lit instead of del Toro’s “see all the goodies I’ve piled up for you to relish” approach (something he carries to an even greater extreme in his “Frankenstein”). It is no wonder that so many critics have negatively compared “The Crooked Man” to its predecessors.
Not that it doesn’t have its faults. The finished film has a lot of missing bits that would make the story more coherent, and the dialogue is sometimes difficult to follow. What humor can be found is so subdued that it is almost absent, making for a dreary decent into horror. But the horror is real, not contrived, and that is at the throbbing, bloodied heart of Hellboy.
Fine performances are delivered by Kesy and Rudolph, and the supporting cast is sound if not outstanding. Of note are Bassingdale and Joseph Marcell as the doomed Rev. Watts.
Runtime: One hour, 39 minutes
Availability: Carried on a variety of streaming services.
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