Mike Mignola’s award-winning comic franchise “Hellboy” has been adapted into four motion pictures now, and this may be a controversial statement, but there’s never been a bad one. Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy” movies were ambitious and beautiful, especially “The Golden Army,” which ranks among his finest works. Neil Marshall’s “Hellboy” reboot stripped away the classiness and focused instead on the series’ freewheeling wildness, an unfocused but enjoyably weird adaptation. It isn’t popular but that doesn’t make it bad. Give it time. It’ll find its audience.
The new reboot, Brian Taylor’s “Hellboy: The Crooked Man,” will need more than time to find its fanbase. The cheapest entry in the series (by a wide margin) was released in Europe to little fanfare a month ago, then dumped on VOD in the United States this week when nobody was looking. No press screenings, no screeners, it’s almost as if the movie was bad or something, but that’s ridiculous. Because despite the obvious VFX limitations, Taylor’s rendition of “Hellboy” is absorbing, satisfying, and — unlike the other three movies — actually scary.
“Hellboy: The Crooked Man” stars Jack Kesy (“Deadpool 2”) as the title character, a bedraggled supernatural detective working for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense in 1959. At the start of the film he’s traveling by train through Appalachia with fellow BPRD agent Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph, “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”), transporting a spider that’s been possessed by a demon — a great premise all by itself. When the creature escapes they chase after it and stumble into another paranormal mess that hits Hellboy close to home.
Hellboy and Agent Song soon find themselves in a battle with witches who want to claim the soul of World War II veteran Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White, “Yellowstone”). Long ago he made a pact with the devil but he never quite kept it, but now he’s returned, unfazed by horrors of any kind, to meet his fate. The three heroes wander off in search of a witch named Cora (Hannah Margetson), finding only her empty sack of skin, before a raccoon worms its way into her mouth and fills her up with meat and juices again. How delectably grotesque.
Our heroes square off against a seductive witch named Effie (Leah McNamara, “The Gentleman”) and an infernal emissary called The Crooked Man (Martin Bassindale), who’s come to collect Tom’s soul. They are both freaky, over the top creations played with absolute relish by actors with nothing to lose. And again, all of this supernatural rigmarole connects to a hitherto unexplored chapter in Hellboy’s past (at least as far as the movies go).
The makeup effects in “Hellboy: The Crooked Man” are solid, albeit nowhere near as ambitious as the previous films, which had more money and more monsters. Kesy looks the part except for Hellboy’s trademark yellow eyes (which are sorely missed). He also sounds the part, even though he doesn’t sound like Ron Perlman or David Harbour. Kesy’s Hellboy is not the overgrown kid we saw in del Toro and Marshall’s movies, he’s an adult who’s seen some shit, with a sense of humor that’s dry and befits a 1950s setting. “The Crooked Man” doesn’t need quips and pop culture to grab us — that’s what the story and characters and scares are for.
Which isn’t to say that Taylor’s film is a tale for the ages. It’s a straight-up monster movie that touches on themes of sin and atonement, but doesn’t dwell on them much or come to unexpected conclusions. And while Hellboy and Tom Ferrell are textured, complex characters, Agent Song isn’t nearly as developed. A character arc involving her increasing fascination with the occult, and whether or not that will lead to tragedy, goes oddly unresolved. Not even in a “save it for a sequel” way. More like a “whoops” sort of way.
In any case, “Hellboy: The Crooked Man” is a refreshing reminder that superhero movies are Rorschach tests. It’s fascinating to see what different filmmakers project onto the same characters, and it’s dull to take same approach over and over again for decades. Taylor envisions a “Hellboy” where the horror matters more than the humor or poetry or romance or even the good vibes, and he’s made a film that proves his take is valid. There are frightening images in “The Crooked Man” I haven’t seen before, and after 150 years of moving pictures that’s no small compliment.
While financial woes hold Brian Taylor’s film back a bit — if you’ve seen one Bulgarian forest in a low budget genre movie you have, in fact, seen them all — the tale he’s telling isn’t ruined. Taylor’s down to Earth interpretation of Hellboy is just as interesting as del Toro’s, only less eye-popping. It’s just as pulpy as Marshall’s, but more confident and controlled. And while it’s skipping theaters entirely, the small screen is more forgiving to “The Crooked Man’s” obvious limitations. It may be cheap, but it’s definitely “Hellboy,” and it’s one of the better adaptations so far.
“Hellboy: The Crooked Man” is now available on VOD.
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