Read @ Joe’s

Title: Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) Director: Brian Taylor Writer: Christopher Golden // Mike Mignola // Brian Taylor Studio: Dark Horse Entertainment // Millennium Media IMDb Plot: Hellboy and a rookie B.P.R.D. agent in the 1950s are sent to the Appalachians, where they discover a remote community dominated by witches and led by the sinister local demon, the Crooked Man. Joe Says: Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a brave, faithful adaptation.

Hellboy, of all the associated comic book characters that have made a cinematic plunge, is one of the few that does not need a save-the-world-from-an-extinction-level-threat story nor the accompanying budget. In fact, creator-artist Mike Mignola has a crypt full of concise, focused stories where Hellboy simply falls into a chaotic, and oftentimes demonic, situation where all that is needed are fists, bullets, and maybe a one-liner or two to save the day. Hellboy: The Crooked Man was such a comic. And the movie is a brave, faithful adaptation.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a low(er)-budget, return-to-basics romp that perfectly captures the character, even if the movie itself is a slowish slog at times.

The source material for this fourth cinematic outing – following Ron Perlman and Guillermo del Toro’s two fan-favorite features as well as the David Harbour and Neil Marshall attempt – was a three issue series published in 2008 written by series creator Mike Mignola and drawn by semi-frequent collaborator Richard Corben. The comic, and for the most part the movie, has Hellboy roaming around 1950s Appalachia. He is befriended by the friendly witch Tom Ferrell and the two take on evil witch Effie Kolb and the soul-stealing Crooked Man, who might be ole Scratch himself. For the movie, Hellboy (Jack Kesy) and BPRD agent Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) find themselves stranded in West Virginia after being thrown off a train by a rampaging giant spider. Other than Song’s inclusion, most of the story beats remain intact.

Hellboy and Tom seek to bury Tom’s dearly-departed old man on consecrated ground. A dilapidated church is only a walk away but Effie Kolb (Leah McNamara) wants to tempt them away while the Crooked Man (Martin Bassindale) – part man, devil, and local legend – wants to collect their souls. Agent Song is along for ride and plays merely as a genre entry point for the uninitiated.

Mike Mignola himself has taken the Beast of the Apocalypse by the horns and penned the screenplay himself. He is joined by horror writer and Hellboy fanatic Christopher Golden, who has written both Hellboy and BPRD stories, and co-created the Baltimore series with Mignola. Brian Taylor, who has a decent handle on superhero flicks as he previously co-directed the deceptively-enjoyable Ghost Rider movie Spirit of Vengeance, joins the team behind the camera. Whereas Mignola and Golden bring street cred to the movie franchise, Taylor brings grit and twisty action.

Likewise, Kesy fills the overcoat nicely and wears the shaved-down horns in a fitting style. He doesn’t have Perlman’s charm – or voice – but Kesy makes the character his own. He has a good presence, believable body language, and smokes with reckless abandon.

Regardless of the fan service behind the movie, the uneven pacing, as well as some sloppy, murky action sequences, are unfortunate and detrimental deciders in an otherwise top-notch adaptation. Taylor stages scenes that are perfect panel reproductions, but the flow between such are either wide-shot walking pieces or undecipherable dark incidents. The story dips into Hellboy’s birth, an event only tangentially connected with the main narrative, and tries to give the all-too human Song agency with the supernatural. Both subplots are unfocused filler. If a backstory on events was required, the titular Crooked Man himself could have benefited with a straighter path.

Some of the fault lies with the source material itself. The comic series has Hellboy and Tom Ferrell (Yellowstone’s Jefferson White) stumbling in and around action without a smooth connecting ligament. On Mignola-drawn (and later with Duncan Fegredo) issues, there are wonderful pauses on display. Full panels are presented with either Hellboy looking around or spotlights on little details of the environment: sculpted reliefs, dark flowers, the occasional frog. Corben’s style is more direct. With his art, Hellboy moves through the paces sequentially. He crashes like waves without the ebb and flow. Such pauses are missed in the movie. Ligaments needed to be added to the blood and muscle.

The Crooked Man comic is not the strongest of Hellboy’s adventures, either. There are other choices Mignola and Golden could have adapted with spectacular results. Box Full of Evil pits Hellboy and his best friend, the merman Abe Sapien, against demons and a haunted house. The Wild Hunt is filled with epic battles and points Hellboy towards his ominous destiny as the Beast of the Apocalypse. In the Chapel of Moloch paints a quirky, stylish adventure with Hellboy taking on a creepy sculpted demon in Portugal. Visuals aside, the story provides the backbone and there are plenty of other skeletons in Hellboy’s closet.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man proves that smaller, tighter Hellboy movies should – and can – work. Taylor has a stylish vision that complements the action-horror genre. Additionally, Kesy deserves another shot at wearing the Right Hand of Doom. Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a fan-made movie specifically for fans. Pacing issues aside, this is a movie that should be seen and celebrated.