Hellboy: The Crooked Man: Big Red Dances With Appalachian Witches

When my son was born, we found that sometimes to get to sleep he needed to be in his pram and pushed back and forth in our living room. This was my job to give my wife some time to rest and because, like all parents, I liked looking at my kid. This rhythmic pushing back and forth could go on for 30 seconds or 30 minutes before the little man was asleep, so to stop myself from falling asleep as well I would read comic books on my iPad.

Having this uninterrupted time, I wanted to dive into something massive, so I started reading Hellboy comics from the first book, Seed of Destruction. Over the course of the next few weeks, I read everything: the Hellboy series, the B.P.R.D., and all of the spin-offs. By the time my son didn’t need to be rocked anymore, I had read thousands of pages of Hellboy, and with B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know, the story was complete.

The thing I love most about the Hellboy series is that it can jump between a variety of story types, but there are two main ones: huge, Lovecraftian, mythos-loaded stories about Hellboy’s fate as a king of Hell and the looming threat of the Ogdru Jahad, and small stories where Hellboy stumbles into some kind of small-town haunting or bewitching and, with a ragtag group of locals, manages to save the day.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is the latter.

The Right Hand of Doom

Originally announced for a theatrical release, the movie was changed to a direct-to-VOD rollout a few weeks before its scheduled release. I was lucky enough to catch Hellboy: The Crooked Man on the big screen for Melbourne’s Monster Fest horror movie festival, but with the announcement of it going direct to VOD, I’ll admit my expectations were low.

There’s a weird phenomenon that happens when you go to see a movie after you’ve seen it’s received underwhelming critical attention. You can enjoy it, but in the back of your mind, you’re waiting for it to go off the cliff. I had something similar with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I watched and watched, and I loved it, but I kept waiting for it to suddenly become underwhelming. But then it ended, and I left the cinema whistling the “Raiders March,” having thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s not something I’m proud of or that I like, but a low Rotten Tomatoes score or a scathing headline from a reviewer will get stuck in my head like a Taylor Swift song, driving me insane. And the same thing happened with Hellboy: The Crooked Man. I kept waiting for the ax to fall, and it never did. 

Written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and regular Hellboy contributor Christopher Golden along with director Brian Taylor, the movie captures the character and tone of the original stories perfectly. It manages to be deadly serious and goofy at the same time, with neither tone overriding the other. It doesn’t fall into that modern superhero movie trap of being embarrassed by its source material. When dark magical stuff happens, it is played totally horror-movie-straight without snark or sarcasm to try and undercut it.

There are also one-liners and action sequences, and Hellboy, as is traditional, gets his ass kicked all over the place. If any of this sounds familiar, it is because The Evil Dead is clearly a massive influence on the way the movie is made, and Hellboy and Ash Williams are peas in a pod in terms of horror movie characters who are exasperated with cosmic evil, out of their depth, and have a weapon for an arm.

The Devil You Know

The movie is set in 1950s Appalachia, where Hellboy and B.P.R.D. agent Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) find themselves embroiled in a feud between witches watched over by the diabolical Crooked Man, an agent of Hell who collects souls, raises up zombies, and keeps the denizens of his mountain in his thrall. Yellowstone star Jefferson White plays Tom Ferrell, who’s come back to town to settle some old business. White gives a standout performance, but all of the cast is excellent. Some of the Southern accents feel a bit cartoon-y they’re so broad but it adds to the comic-book feel of the whole thing.

Jack Kesy as Hellboy is always going to get comparisons to Ron Perlman’s iconic performance in Guillermo del Toro’s two films, but Kesy does well in the role. His version of the character is still unseasoned in fieldwork and deals with the mysteries of his origins. He’s a more misanthropic version of the character, still finding his place in the world, and he smokes like a chimney to the point where I started craving a cigarette myself in the cinema.

Conclusion

Maybe The Crooked Man will only appeal to hardcore Hellboy fans who want to see another adaptation of their favorite character, but it is also a very enjoyable riff on folk horror and The Evil Dead with some comic book flourishes. Sometimes the low budget becomes apparent during the daylight scenes, but 80 percent of the movie takes place in darkened rooms or at nighttime, when it looks gorgeous. 

It will be a shame if this is the last we see of Hellboy on the big screen, as the character has so many stories that could be told. Perhaps Mignola and Golden could sell this as a pilot for a TV series, and we can see Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. solve mysteries across America like a big red version of The X-Files. And if not, then I would advise everyone to read the original books. Even if you don’t have a baby to rock to sleep, they’re worth a read, and Hellboy: The Crooked Man is worth a watch.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is now available on digital platforms.