Hellboy: The Crooked Man brings back that demonic superhero who is sometimes known as Big Red. Too bad Hellboy couldn’t return to a more coherent script. Brian Taylor is the director working from a script he had co-written with Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola. Mignola is the creator of Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics.
Jack Kesy has taken over the role which was previously played by Roy Perlman and David Harbour. The cast also includes Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Joseph Marcell, and Leah McNamara.
The year is 1959, and Hellboy and a young agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense are on a train taking some strange supernatural spider to their headquarters. The spider suddenly grows to a massive size and initiates a wreck that enables its escape. As Hellboy and Bobbie Jo Song try to retrieve the eight-legged menace, they realize that another supernatural force is in the rural Appalachian region. The encounter a local resident named Tom who once indulged in witchcraft. A malevolent being known as the Crooked Man has returned. Hellboy and his young partner are drawn into another strange battle with demonic forces.
Perlman remains the best version of this character. Kesy is not a terrible lead actor, but the script is rather confusing and doesn’t serve him well. Also, I would have no idea that this was taking place in 1959 if it weren’t for the notice at the beginning of the film.
This also did not seem to have had a comparable production budget as the previous installments. I can normally handle somewhat subpar special effects if the script made more sense.
The film ended up being a bit of a jumble. Hellboy’s wisecracks don’t land as effectively as in other films.
Hellboy fans will likely be pleased that another film is out there, and it really isn’t that terrible. It’s an adequate diversion but a very forgettable one in spite of the distinctiveness of Hellboy’s appearance.
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