Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) Film Review

The “World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator” returns to the big screen for the fourth time in this American superhero horror film from director Brian Taylor (Crank, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024). Based on the Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others comic book series by Mike Mignola and marking the second reboot of the Hellboy film series, the film sees the infamous heroic demon in an adventure set in 1959.

Minor spoilers head.

The film opens with Hellboy, this time played by Jack Kesy of The Strain and Deadpool 2, aboard a train with Bobbie (Adeline Rudolph), a rookie agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, along with another BPRD agent, as they transport a hellhound-arachnid in a crate to be studied in their headquarters. Hellboy claims he hears something dark calling out to him from the mountains as they pass through rural Appalachia. And as expected, their cargo escapes. Chaos ensues, and their carriage gets thrown into the wilderness, letting the demon-spider escape into the mountains. Trapped with nowhere to go, the duo eventually discovers a small community haunted by witches, led by a local devil with a troubling connection to Hellboy’s past: the Crooked Man.

Penned by Christopher Golden, Brian Taylor, and Mike Mignola, this new iteration of the comic book character is a vast departure from the previous three films that came before (Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, featuring Ron Perlman in the title role, and Neil Marshall’s R-rated reboot starring David Harbour). For one, the original comic book source, Mignola, co-written the screenplay. The film also brings the character back to his horror roots. From a giant spider to evil witches and even zombies, this reboot truly embraced the source material’s dark elements. Honestly, that sounded so good on paper. And so I was pretty disappointed when I finally saw this on the big screen.

The best part of this film is probably that opening sequence featuring the giant spider demon escaping from Hellboy’s team. It happens so fast. The action is well choreographed. The monster, while obviously CGI, is pretty scary, especially after its gruesome murder of the other BPRD agent upon its escape in the process. It’s campy and thrilling—just the way I like my Hellboy. Sadly, that’s where the fun ends.

What follows is a dull, more slow-burn horror tale, as if it’s trying to be the second cousin to Robert Eggers’ The Witch. While I appreciate the film trying to emulate the folk horror atmosphere of its source material, I don’t think a slow-building horror approach would work well for Hellboy. Instead of being scared, I ended up getting bored by the film’s slow build-up.

Now, I don’t mind Jack Kesy’s costume, which almost looks like it came from a cosplay shop. But to make matters worse, the film also suffers heavily thanks to its obviously low budget. The cheap-looking CGI can be quite distracting at times, especially in one scene where he gets attacked by a big snake, which looks like it came out of a video game from the early 2010s. What you saw when you first watched the film’s trailer is exactly how it looks for the rest of the film, as it is clearly constrained by its small budget.

Now, regarding the horror elements of Hellboy: The Crooked Man, we are treated to a few gory kills, a giant spider attack, a few zombies coming to life, and loud, banging music for jump scares. And that’s pretty much it. The direction is pretty stale, and it takes a very long time to get to its more interesting part, which is the Crooked Man himself (played by Martin Bassindale). The action for the remainder of the film lacks any sense of excitement, and even if the characters are already being cornered by a group of zombies, you can hardly feel any sense of thrill.

When I first saw that trailer, a part of me hoped that the rest of the film was not as bad as it seemed to be. But sadly, it is exactly what we’ve all guessed. I’d give it a point for that fun opening scene. But thanks to its cheap-looking production values that leave a lot to be desired, to the dull, unimaginative direction, and an overall lack of thrills, this latest iteration of the comic book hero is a surefire way to knock you out and put you to sleep.