HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN (2024)

Genre: Action/Fantasy
Director: Brian Taylor
Cast: Jack Kesy, Adeline Rudolph, Jefferson White, Leah McNamara, Joseph Marcell, Hannah Margetson, Martin Bassindale
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence and Some Nudity)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 12 December 2024

Synopsis: From the visionary director, writer, and producer Brian Taylor (Crank, Happy!), this film brings a chilling tale of survival against the forces of darkness. Set in the 1950s, rookie BPRD agent Bobbie Jo Song finds herself in a dire situation when tasked with delivering a spider to the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. She must enlist the help of Hellboy to confront the malevolent Crooked Man, who has returned to Earth to harvest souls for the devil.

Movie Review:

Despite the mediocre box-office returns, director Guillermo del Toro gave us the best live-action adaptations of Mike Mignola’s creation, Hellboy. A total of two except the largely forgotten third one which starred David Harbour.

Enlisting the help of Mignola, our favourite half-demon returns for the fourth time in an outing that costs a meagre US$20 million to produce considering the first two easily costs three times as much.

Brian Taylor who is famous for the Crank series and the sequel to Ghost Rider took on directing duties. Not a good choice by any standard. Anyway, Hellboy: The Crooked Man opens with a frenetic action sequence with Hellboy (Jack Kesy) and his colleague Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) tracking down a supernatural, shapeshifting spider after it escaped from a crate. The opening sequence is impressive and at least, it gets your hopes up high for a while.

Unfortunately, the low-budget affair soon turned into an overlong exposition involving a man named Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White from Yellowstone) who is apparently some sort of man witch and our two Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense agents have to assist him in getting rid of his curse, dealing with the crooked man (Martin Bassindale) who trades souls to the devil and his bunch of annoying sidekicks, the witches.

On paper, there are enough things to keep Hellboy as busy as a bee. But for a 90 minutes or so movie, there’s little to no story developments that keep audiences invested. We are not going to pretend we have read Mignola’s original works but when you compare this to the del Toro’s versions, The Crooked Man is a complete snoozefest. There’s a prolonged scene that takes place in a house where Hellboy, Jo and Tom just go on and on about some witchcraft stuff. The stillness is only interrupted by the appearance of Effie Kolb (Leah McNamara), a witch and Tom’s dead ex-girlfriend, Cora (Hannah Margetson) suddenly comes to life in a terrifying way.

If we are pampered by del Toro’s generous introductions to various colourful creatures and monsters lurking in Hellboy’s world, we are afraid the limited budget means even the main villain looks like a generic creepy devil from any other generic horror movies and there’s nothing else on the plate to deliver the imagination and magical which the originals delivered.

To replace the lavish CGI and creature effects, Taylor makes use of traditional horror tactics such as loud music cues and cheap jump scares to justify for the ticket price. There’s frequent usage of traumatic and threatening visions in the finale which feels increasingly lethargic to the extend that this version of Big Red seems less powerful in the hands of Taylor and Mignola.

To be fair, Jake Kesy is fine in the role of Hellboy. The story is set in 1959 and it’s more appropriate to cast a younger lead. Well in the end, it all boils down to the script. The narrative here works better if it is a 45 minutes feature. There are also no Abe Sapien nor Johann Krauss to liven up things and mostly, the entire outing looks drab and dreary without an ounce of fun. It’s a good try just not one that Hellboy fans are looking for.

Movie Rating:

(Witness the dullest Hellboy outing ever)

Review by Linus Tee