Hellboy: The Crooked Man
He’s big. He’s red.
He’s a cigar-chomping demon who is actually is a good guy.
There’s no doubt about it, Hellboy is hard to miss. Even if you haven’t seen the previous live action and animated adventures, you’re sure to recognise the gargantuan features of this antihero from the pits of hell.
Guillermo del Toro’s popular flicks, starring the excellent Ron Perlman, are probably the more recognisable adaptations of Mike Mignola’s beloved comic book Hellraiser.
Unfortunately, del Toro and Perlman’s long awaited third movie following 2008’s The Golden Army has never come to pass – it’s the del Toro trilogy, that never was.
The Crooked Man, however, takes this popular franchise back to its gritty graphic novel basics with an incredibly faithful adaptation of Mignola and Richard Corben’s three-part series, which sees Deadpool 2’s Jack Kesy take on the titular role of the big man in red.
Crank director Brian Taylor jumps into the occult-inspired action here with an obvious appetite for frenetic visuals and bone-crunching gore. The Crooked Man may not be as flash as del Toro’s creation, but it’s certainly a vastly superior story to Neil Marshall’s lacklustre rendition from 2019.
Set in the late 1950s, Hellboy finds himself partnered with a new BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) agent, Bobbie Jo Song who undergoes a literal baptism of fire when the couple find themselves posted to a rural community deep within the Appalachian mountains.
Something strange appears to be going on with the locals and it’s not long before Hellboy and agent Bobbie discover that the town’s inhabitants are under the spell of a dark force known locally as the Crooked Man.
Delivering Crank-inspired action that sees the camera sliver and shake uncomfortably along with some very twisted visual effects, Taylor clearly enjoys ramping up the action within this dark and compelling tale of rural witchcraft and backwoods devilry.
Some have compared the backward, woodland setting and cursed spooks in The Crooked Man with the action displayed in Sam Raimi’s legendary Evil Dead, and you can see why thanks to the plethora of blank-eyed ghouls with twisted and contorted bodies, controlled by unseen forces from beyond.
But while Evil Dead was a twisted yet enjoyably fun romp into video nasty-type horror, The Crooked Man is an altogether darker experience. It’s a bit like a Marilyn Manson video on steroids. Jack Kesy delivers a strong performance here as Big Red, with some truly creepy visuals on display. But the action sadly takes a nosedive around midway and doesn’t regain the momentum captured in the film’s opening hour.
Still, if you’re a fan of the comics and the previous movies, you’re not going to want to miss this latest rendition of Mike Mignola’s most coveted comic creation.
