A Definitely Positive Review of Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) (2024)

A Definitely Positive Review of Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) (1)

When it was first announced that another Hellboy movie was in the works, I was tentatively excited. The comics are, of course, a perennial favorite, as is the Guillermo del Toro version.1 The 2019 movie had one truly brilliant scene2 but was largely an oddly-paced, muddled mess. Still, I never turn down Hellboy, and the title was a promising start. The Crooked Man is a wonderfully spooky story, and I liked the idea of a new movie taking on one of the standalone tales rather than diving into the end game. So, I waited to hear more, and… nothing. Having assumed that the movie — like so many titles — was a project that had simply dropped into the ether, never to be seen again, I forgot about it until people started making noise about a trailer. The trailer looked low-budget but creepy (which, as you all may have noticed, is my favorite kind of horror movie). I went back to being excited.

Then, once again, nothing. No updates, no theatrical release, just radio silence about it being available in the United States.

I will admit, by the time I saw it available to purchase online, I was feeling my doubts. As of sitting down to do so, it had a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.3 Combined with the decision to release it direct to streaming, I was braced for it to be bad. Imagine my shock, dear reader, when it was not bad. In fact, I greatly enjoyed it. It’s not perfect — and we’ll get back to that — but it’s creepy, atmospheric, and fun. And, it feels like the comics. Honestly, go watch it with an open mind and you’re going to have a good evening.

For those of you who are less familiar, here is the basic shape:

While in southern Appalachia in the late 1950s, Hellboy comes across a local resident who has been harmed by a witch. Together with a recently-returned local named Tom Ferrell, who has his own history with the witchcraft and evil in the region, he sets out to look into the matter. Together, they go to bury Tom’s father and confront the local manifestation of the devil — the so-called “Crooked Man”. Sounds simple? It’s a horror movie, friends, you know better than that.

Now, let’s dig in a little more. (A warning: there are going to be spoilers. I will leave out some details, but I will be hitting both the main plot points and things that struck me as being worth some extra discussion. The majority of them are straight from the comic, but there are a few places where the movie differs. Proceed with caution if this bothers you.)

For the movie, they have added in a framing device — our movie opens with Hellboy and another agent of the BPRD (Bobbie Jo Song, played by the charming Adeline Rudolph) transporting a dangerous spider through the region. It, of course, destroys the train car they’re traveling in, escapes into the mines, and leaves them stranded.

When they arrive at a cabin, they encounter several locals standing around the prone form of a boy who has been cursed for teasing local witch Cora Fisher. Their matter-of-fact, “what can you do” attitude over this amuses the heck out of me (and did in the comics as well).4

At this point, a surprising amount of dialogue and imagery is taken straight from the comics, including things I never expected to see done on screen. Tom Ferrell arrives, discovers the “witch ball” used to harm the boy,5 and shows our heroes the way to Cora Fisher’s house. Once there, they find her familiar trapped in a jar under the floorboards, and her empty skin awaiting her return.

A Definitely Positive Review of Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) (2)

Her climbing back into her own skin is just as unsettling as I could have hoped. Cora, it is revealed, is less villain than victim in her own right — after a litany of tragedies, she gave in to the trap of witchcraft, and is now in fear of the loss of her soul. And, the claim on her soul is being called in.

Outside, the group are hailed by the sinisterly flirtatious Effie Kolb, on a white horse. Effi had tempted Tom into witchcraft as a teenager, but he had been so frightened and disturbed by the “Crooked Man” (their local servant/manifestation of the devil) that he had run away and never come back. The only reminder of that time he has is his “lucky bone,” taken from a dead cat in their ritual. Tom has always refused to use the power of the bone, but its presence has kept him safe and tainted him regardless.

After Effie escapes, it turns out that her white horse was actually Tom’s father, who Effie had enchanted and abused for the years Tom was away. He dies in Tom’s arms, and leaves him determined to see the old man buried properly in consecrated ground before facing down the Crooked Man once and for all. Cora, Jo, and Hellboy agree to accompany him.

On the way to the church, Cora is attacked and killed by a demonic snake, which also attacks Hellboy. While under the influence of its venom, he sees a vision of his mother, a witch who consorted with demons and is damned because of it.

A Definitely Positive Review of Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) (3)

I have mixed feelings about the change here. In the comic, their journey up the mountain is plagued by “The Melungion witches. … Supposed to be descended from the settlers who disappeared at Roanoke Island, got mixed in with the Croatan Indians. They’re all kinds of crazy stories about them. They’re supposed to be a special kind of evil.” Which is… oof. I can definitely get behind dropping this. Not only is “Melungeon” a racist slur against certain mixed-race populations in the south, using it in this context was an extra level of gross. So, yeah. Good call on the part of the writers6 to replace that with a different danger altogether. That said, I don’t know that the decision to taunt Hellboy with images of his mother in Hell was the right swap.7 It muddied the waters a little, given that he and Jo are guests in someone else’s battle with the devil. I do really enjoy how sinister the snake is, however, and it more than makes up for my misgivings.

Their arrival at the church feels a bit abrupt, but it’s a really fun part of the movie (plus, it’s where we meet Reverend Watts — a blind preacher, who looks after the folks up “on the Hurricane,” as this part of the mountain is known). With our heroes in the church, night falls with unnatural abruptness, and the Crooked Man, Effie Kolb, and an array of witches gather on the edges of the consecrated ground to threaten everyone within.

A Definitely Positive Review of Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) (4)

It’s such a good scene — fast-paced, and wonderfully nightmarish. The dangers range from being offered any number of infernal gifts in exchange for Tom’s soul8 to the witches resurrecting the sinners buried in the graveyard to attack our heroes. They fend off both physical danger and temptation, and the Reverend uses the power of Tom’s lucky bone combined with both of their faith in goodness to bless a shovel that Hellboy uses to weaken and drive off the Crooked Man.

The last act definitely departs the most from the source material, and I do think it’s where the movie stumbled a little. It gives the impression that, having added Jo into the plot, they need something for her to do. Personally, I would have been perfectly happy had they simply folded her into the action as intended, but I do see why they went the route they did.

Hellboy and Tom set off to the Crooked Man’s house, leaving Jo and Reverend Watts behind. Jo has the idea that the mines snaking through the mountain are a power source that can be disrupted to help defeat the bad guy. So, down she and the Reverend go to do just that. Plus side? She recaptures the spider from the beginning! The mines are creepy, and there are some good horror movie moments! Down side? Reverend Watts gets killed, and I am quite put out about that.

Meanwhile, Hellboy and Tom are being plagued by harrowing visions and demonic attacks in the Crooked Man’s house. Jo’s spell gives them and opening, and they manage to destroy the Crooked Man.

This is another one of those changes I mentioned. In the comic, the Crooked Man wants the power in the lucky cat bone from Tom’s teenage ritual. Tom rejects the power offered to him, and all the temptations therein. Giving the bone back to the greedy creature that is the Man sends him back to hell, and frees them from his power. There’s something about the simplicity of that — and the fact that it is entirely Tom’s decision — that really appeals to me, more than the flashier resolution in the movie. Honestly, I am just being a nitpicker here. It works just fine. And, if it had not been one of my favorite individual Hellboy stories9, I would have less to say about small changes. So let’s get back to talking about the movie itself…

The cast all did a great job. Jack Kesey’s Hellboy has both the snark and the presence you need to pull off the role. As I mentioned above, Adeline Rudolph is very appealing as Jo. Leah McNamara chews the scenery (in the best possible way) as Effie Kolb, bringing a carnivalesque creepiness that I think works really well. Jefferson White and Joseph Marcell are both deeply endearing as Tom Ferrell and Reverend Watts, respectively (two characters I loved in the comic, and continue to love on screen). Cora (Hannah Margetson) is pitiable, but maintains a level of pathos I appreciate.10 And, of course, the Crooked Man (Martin Bassindale) is menacing even above the — really effective — make-up.

The sets vary a bit. There is a fair amount of just being in the woods, which is a tried and true fall back for horror and scifi (why mess with a good thing). Hey — woods are creepy! Cora’s home and the chapel have some truly striking moments of good lighting. There’s a moment when they first walk into the church, with the light coming in the windows and the pews leading up to the Reverend that I wanted to pause and appreciate, but I was not watching the movie by myself. Honestly, points on lighting and cinematography in general — Mike Mignola’s art has such a moody, heavy, almost block-print feel, and there are moments that manage to evoke it surprisingly well. Maybe it was just my brain filling in the panels that matched, but the mood was there. The glimpses into Hell feel a bit empty, and the Crooked Man’s house is visually a little forgettable, but there is an earnestness to the movie that makes me willing to just roll with a lot.

And, I just keep coming back to how much it feels like the comics. Even the low-budget feel of it matches the pulpiness of the original in a way I can’t quite explain. Beyond that, there is a gothic fairy tale feel to the whole thing that is very Mike Mignola in the best possible way.

What this all boils down to is simple: this movie is super fun. Brian Taylor was not afraid to let it be weird, which is what Hellboy needs to be. The actors all did a great job, the vibe is both creepy and camp, and I think y’all should watch it. You ever have a movie that exactly scratches the mood itch for you? This one was exactly what I felt like watching, and undoubtedly will be again. It’s definitely joining my regular line-up of spooky movies.

A Definitely Positive Review of Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) (5)
  1. The Guillermo del Toro Hellboy might be much more straight action than a lot of the weird spookiness of the comics, but no one can deny how flat out good it is. The design, the performances, the sense of humor… Truly good. ↩︎
  2. I will die on this hill. The scene with Baba Yaga was perfect, and I wish more of the movie had felt like that. ↩︎
  3. At the time of writing, it has gone up to 44% — maybe it will keep rising! ↩︎
  4. Is this a rural thing? Because this feels pretty spot-on to how my neighbors would react to someone doing a “damn fool thing” ↩︎
  5. A neat thing — the movie did include the sidebar with Granny Oakum explaining how to make a witch ball. It was a fun addition, but I do wish there had been one or two other narrative-breaking elements to make it feel like it fit a little better. ↩︎
  6. Mike Mignola, Brian Taylor, Christopher Golden ↩︎
  7. This is undoubtedly a personal issue. I watched it with folks who had never read/watched a single Hellboy and they thought it worked just fine. ↩︎
  8. I love that they kept the Reverend rejecting the offer of getting his youth and sight back. His take that he had come by his years and maladies honestly is perfect ↩︎
  9. Along with Wolves of St August ↩︎
  10. I will say that Hannah Margetson’s accent was a little inconsistent, and laid on a little thick. It wasn’t bad or distracting, but I figured I would mention it before anyone got snippy. Personally, I always give points to people who attempt regional American accents — shit ain’t easy, as they say. ↩︎
A Definitely Positive Review of Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) (2024)
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