Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024)
October 13, 2024 10:19 AM - Subscribe
[TRAILER] Hellboy (Jack Kesy) and a rookie B.P.R.D. agent (Adeline Rudolph) in the 1950s are sent to the Appalachians, where they discover a remote community dominated by witches and led by the sinister local demon, the Crooked Man.
Also starring Jefferson White, Martin Bassindale, Leak McNamara, Joseph Marcell, Hannah Margetson.
Directed by Brian Taylor. Screenplay by Christopher Golden, Mike Mignola, Brian Taylor. Based on Hellboy by Mike Mignola. Produced by
Mike Richardson, Jeff Greenstein, Yariv Lerner, Jonathan Yunger, Les Weldon, Robert Van Norden, Sam Shulte. Cinematography by Ivan Vatsov. Edited by Ryan Denmark. Music by Sven Faulconer.
41% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now available for digital purchase in the US. JustWatch listing.
Also starring Jefferson White, Martin Bassindale, Leak McNamara, Joseph Marcell, Hannah Margetson.
Directed by Brian Taylor. Screenplay by Christopher Golden, Mike Mignola, Brian Taylor. Based on Hellboy by Mike Mignola. Produced by
Mike Richardson, Jeff Greenstein, Yariv Lerner, Jonathan Yunger, Les Weldon, Robert Van Norden, Sam Shulte. Cinematography by Ivan Vatsov. Edited by Ryan Denmark. Music by Sven Faulconer.
41% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now available for digital purchase in the US. JustWatch listing.
After the disappointment of the last Hellboy film, I was really really hoping that this one would overcome it's more humble budgeting situation...and well, just be good. I still plan to watch it eventually, nonetheless.
One review said it felt kind of like a backdoor pilot to a tv show, which kind of lines up with your impression of it feeling a bit like an episode of tv. I...wouldn't be adverse to that?
posted by Atreides at 7:24 AM on October 14
One review said it felt kind of like a backdoor pilot to a tv show, which kind of lines up with your impression of it feeling a bit like an episode of tv. I...wouldn't be adverse to that?
posted by Atreides at 7:24 AM on October 14
It feels like there was a 13 episode Hellboy TV series that was solid, but these were like the 11th and 12th best episodes.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:02 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:02 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I really wanted to like this, as it is the closest in tone to the actual comics (as you'd hope, given that Mike Mignolla's got a writing credit). I think the writing is basically good, but the execution is just off somehow.
Describing it as like a lesser-quality two-part episode from an otherwise good TV show does seem accurate to me. If it was, otherwise-disconnected bits like Hellboy seeing his mother could refer back to some previous lore episode. As a person who read all the comics and the epic BPRD series, I was following along, but it didn't really seem related to the rest of the movie at all.
posted by whir at 3:05 PM on October 14 [2 favorites]
Describing it as like a lesser-quality two-part episode from an otherwise good TV show does seem accurate to me. If it was, otherwise-disconnected bits like Hellboy seeing his mother could refer back to some previous lore episode. As a person who read all the comics and the epic BPRD series, I was following along, but it didn't really seem related to the rest of the movie at all.
posted by whir at 3:05 PM on October 14 [2 favorites]
I haven't seen this but the comments about it feeling like it is part of a series are interesting in light of an article I read about this interviewing the director or producer which he indicated that the intent was to continuing making these films with this budget and actors going forward.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:44 AM on October 15 [1 favorite]
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:44 AM on October 15 [1 favorite]
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Hellboy looks solid... except when the chest plate in his costume rides up over his collarbones or bunches up around his waist.
He sounds like our Hellboy... in the one speed they ever have him speak in: weary/sarcastic. He doesn't deliver a line outside of this tone though. He slides right past laconic into sleepy.
His sidekick Jo is probably the best actor in this, a likable spark. But they just drop her in unexplained like this was episode seven of a Hellboy TV series and not a standalone film. Her chemistry with the wooden Kesy was so non-existent that when a character said he had noticed Hellboy had feelings with her I guffawed. Feelings? Feelings? Nah.
Really that's what this feels like in general: an episode or two of a TV series. It's not awful, but it's awful far from Guillermo del Toro.
It really feels like all of the best bits are pulled right out of the comic, but that the director doesn't have the chops to make things land fully on film.
It looks and sort of feels like an actual horror story, for example, but it doesn't have any real scares.
In the end, it was obviously made with care by sincere people who love Hellboy, but a lower budget and less dynamic filmmaking leave it kind of half baked.
It was the kind of thing where there wasn't much I hated, but not only did it never fully gel into something I could love, but it regularly blurred out such that I lost track of what was even happening.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:28 AM on October 13 [3 favorites]