By Ryan Dailey
There are many different hills one must choose to die on when one is a fan of horror, or cinema in general. “Is Rob Zombie a genius or a hack?” “Is the television miniseries of The Shining better than the Kubrick film?” “Did Jackie Earl Haley help or hinder the character of Freddy Kruger?”
This reviewer can add one more to the list, “Is the Hellboy franchise able to survive without Ron Pearlman and Guillermo Del Toro?”
The answer is absolutely.
Hellboy (2019) played out like it was a comic arc that one would have seen on comic store shelves in the mid to late 90’s, penned and drawn by Mike Mignola. The plot and look of the film was spot on. The same can be said about Hellboy:The Crooked Man to a degree.
Hellboy:The Crooked Man is a direct adaptation of the 2008 miniseries of the same name, something that has not been seen since the early 2000’s animated films.
Whereas the first two Hellboy films were basically Lord of the Rings type fantasy with a massive budget, The Crooked Man is the polar opposite.
The film focuses on Hellboy and his pencil pushing partner as they are bringing a specimen back to the B.R.P.D. when their plans are derailed, quite literally.
The plot spirals into one of the devil, or Crooked Man corrupting souls and spending his time surrounded by witches. The movie turns into a very enjoyable Evil Dead style horror romp.
The film is hindered by a micro budget for what the franchise deserves. The villain design is very bland, almost as if someone tried to draw the Babadook from memory. The Hellboy makeup is exceptional, however, as he looks exactly as he would in 1959 as a rookie as hell as him not being super muscular, given that the actual character did not look that way in the source material.
If you are a person that enjoys the original franchise and want to kill about 99 minutes of time with something that is Evil Dead 1 adjacent, Hellboy:The Crooked Man is currently streaming on HULU.