Despite an evocative atmosphere and a rewarding embrace of folk horror, Brian Taylor’s take on the big, red paranormal detective feels creatively lost in limbo. Hellboy is a promising property that’s periodically stumbled with its live-action adaptations. There’s such a rich world to pull from here that brilliantly mashes together Lovecraftian horror, pulp detective fiction, […]
Despite an evocative atmosphere and a rewarding embrace of folk horror, Brian Taylor’s take on the big, red paranormal detective feels creatively lost in limbo.
Hellboy is a promising property that’s periodically stumbled with its live-action adaptations. There’s such a rich world to pull from here that brilliantly mashes together Lovecraftian horror, pulp detective fiction, superhero storytelling, and sprawling adventures. At the same time, it takes a delicate hand to properly bring all these elements together into something that’s not only coherent, but entertaining. Hellboy’s cinematic offerings continue to mutate and hold a mirror up to changing pop culture trends. Hellboy versus witches in a haunted house, from the director of Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, should be an easy home run. This is exactly why it’s so frustrating that Hellboy: The Crooked Man is such a generic and forgettable experience — as an action film, horror movie, and graphic novel adaptation.
There’s a fairly barebones plot that drives Hellboy: The Crooked Man forward, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it gives the movie more of an opportunity to flex its horror muscles and develop character. Set in 1959, Hellboy encounters an Appalachian community that’s afflicted by witches who answer to a darker demonic force, The Crooked Man. It’s admirable that The Crooked Man really wastes no time with exposition or table-setting. It throws the audience right into the middle of this adventure and it almost feels like the film’s first act has been chopped off in favor of getting tight to the good stuff. The Crooked Man is largely successful on this front and basically presumes that anyone who is watching has at least some level of familiarity with the Hellboy property. That being said, it’s still a slightly jarring tactic that may leave some audiences scrambling to catch up while Hellboy smashes monsters and his sidekick, Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense agent, Bobbie Jo Song (
![‘Hellboy: The Crooked Man’ Is a Cursed Hex That Further Damns the Franchise [Review]](https://bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Hellboy-The-Crooked-Man-Hellboy-Aims-Gun.jpg)
