Hellboy: The Crooked Man is tame compared to earlier entries

Hellboy: The Crooked Man – 2024
Director Brian Taylor
Screenplay Christopher Golden, Mike Mignola, Brian Taylor
Starring Jack Kesey, Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Martin Bassindale, Joseph Marcell, Leah McNamara, Hannah Margetson

The Hellboy franchise has bounced around plenty since Guillermo Del Toro first had the reigns 2004. The protagonist went from an unforgettable (Perlman) to memorable (Harbor) to Kesey’s now competent portrayal.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man takes place in the Appalachians in 1959. The story feels more like an X-Files than any of the previous entries.

Hellboy and Bobbie Jo Strong (Rudolph) crash their train car. They experience this crash when the spider they are guarding reacts to the evil spirit of the area. Soon they meet up with (the unironically named) Tom Ferrell (White, from Yellowstone). Ferrell is back from soldiering overseas.

Ferrell finds much has changed since he left. He figures he’s here to atone for his past sins. These sins include consorting with Effie (McNamara), the acolyte of The Crooked Man. Along the way, he finds his ex-girlfriend Cora (Margetson). She has now become a witch. Her soul is burdened, and Effie is tormenting her.

Tom, Hellboy, Cora and Bobbie Jo then begin the trek to the Hurricane. On their journey they are tasked with visions and curses. None of these reach the point of actually being more intriguing than anything else in the series.

As The Crooked Man (Bassindale) is just an old man spouting gibberish. The witches are either old and cackling or young and tortured. We are not scared because Hellboy has no fear of any of this. Only the white trash mutterings of Ferrell and Bobbie Jo’s naive musings are intended to keep us grounded, for what that is worth.

The effects are best when they opt for practical. The digital effects are muted by the sepia tone cinematography. Maybe that is for the best when we see the snake go in and out of Cora.

Taylor does his best to create tension by way of long introductions. There needs to be adequate payoff worthy of the tension and that is lacking here, for the most part.

While this is not necessarily a bad Hellboy venture, it definitely feels less complete than any of the other films. One wishes that Kesey and Taylor were given the story worthy of the great character that fights evil with the Right Hand of Doom. At this point, it’s not clear that there will be another chance.

(*** out of *****)