Cal Clark’s review published on Letterboxd:
Hellboy: The Crooked Man 6/10
The film is an adaptation of the short graphic novel of the same name and follows a young Hellboy and rookie into a community with strange happenings, with witches and the weird ol’ Crooked Man.
Not a perfect movie by any means but you can feel the passion on screen and there’s a lot to enjoy. I thought Jack Kesy was a really good Hellboy. Not only does he look the part but the performance and his one-liners were really good and fit the role. It’s very different to Del Toro’s duology and is a pretty dark film and falls more in line with folk horror. It’s not a very scary film but the atmosphere is grimy and creepy and it’s sound design although quite continuous, does do its job well at creating this folk horror tone. I would be lying if I didn’t say there are some creepy bits. Not read a lot of Hellboy books, only this one and it’s a pretty good adaptation. Creator Mike Mignolia wanted to make a comic accurate film and if this is it, I’m happy he got to see his character portrayed on film the way he intended. It does feel like a comic come to life.
That being said, it’s low budget and you can tell quite obviously at moments, particularly the starting action scene. Thankfully though, there’s more to this than violence and watching Hellboy and co navigate this spooky community was entertaining. Although, the story isn’t the most fascinating and isn’t paced all too well with characters that aren’t the most interesting. Characterisation isn’t too great but the journey they go on made a good watch. A film passionate with showcasing Hellboy as its creator intended and one that fans of the character should enjoy.
An enjoyable reboot of the series and if they are afraid that Hellboy isn’t gonna do well at the box office, just make a series and keep this guy in the role. Would love to see that…
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