The moment Millenium Media revealed it had a new Hellboy movie in the works, everyone wondered how it would stand out. Guillermo del Toro’s duology were like pulpy fairy tales, while the 2019 reboot tried for a more action-horror bent, to mixed results. This new movie, The Crooked Man, has more of a supernatural horror bent, and it looks like it might do a good job?
Set in the 1950s, this new movie puts Hellboy (Jack Kesy) in a rural Appalachian community with fellow BPRD agent Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph). While making friends with some of the locals—namely Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White)—the duo realize the community has a witch problem that’s making all sorts of weird things happening. You’ve seen visions of dead people before, but you’ve never seen a raccoon doing its best Chestburster impression. (If you have, then you’re watching much more interesting horror than most other people.)
Despite the spooky setup, Crooked Man does look like it’ll be some schlocky fun. Having the very devil-looking Hellboy chat it up with a priest while loading up his gun is some good stuff, ditto watching him suplex a snake and pop its head like a zit. If the movie can marry those two tones together, it might find a solid audience the last reboot didn’t, helped by openly advertising itself as an adaptation of the popular miniseries by Mike Mignola and Richard Corbin. If only half the trailer wasn’t so dark to the point that Hellboy and other characters look like blobs.
Directed by Brian Taylor and also starring Martin Bassindale, Joseph Marcell, and Leah McNamara, Hellboy: The Crooked Man comes to theaters later this year.
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