The two Ron Pearlman led, Guillermo del Toro are fantastic and I also thought that the 2019 Hellboy movie was a lot of fun too. Still, it is a real shame that Guillermo del Toro, after Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), never got to do his third Hellboy movie. Anyway, I am a huge fan of the character, and while I liked the more action hero style Guillermo del Toro went for. I always felt that in the comic books, Hellboy was more of a detective than he was a straight up action here, more Fox Mulder than James Bond if that makes sense.
How to Download Hellboy: The Crooked Man
Hellboy: The Crooked Man was released on October 8, 2024. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Crooked Man Story and Movie Review
I am a big fan of The Crooked Man story from the Hellboy comic books and I thought that making a more horror based Hellboy movie than an action one had a lot of potential. This time around we have Brian Taylor behind the camera directing the movie and Jack Kesy putting on the red makeup as Hellboy.
Look, if you are expecting the visual spectacle that you got from the last three Hellboy movies, you will be very disappointed here. Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a low budget movie, this had a budget of 20 million dollars. However, to be fair, I think that they did a hell of a job here and the 1950 Appalachian setting is fantastic as it is dark, moody, and pretty creepy too. They did the best with what they had here and to be fair, I have seen far worse CG in movies with 5 times the budget that this one has.
Plot Summary: Hellboy’s Appalachian Adventure
The story is kind of fun and drops us in the middle of a mission. Hellboy and agent Bobbie Jo Song are transporting some kind of magical spider to a facility where it can be researched. They are traveling on a train and the spider gets out, runs into the Appalachian mountains woods and Hellboy reveals that there is something calling to dark beings in these woods and that was what the spider was drawn to as he felt it too.
From trying to get the spider back, Hellboy and Bobbie Joe get pulled into a rather “spooky” situation. Turns out that there is a witch in these woods and that a young man returning from the war called Tom has a history with this witch and also a history with an evil being called The Crooked Man.
I love the lore of The Crooked Man being a greedy man who when we went to hell, agreed to work for the devil to collect souls in exchange for silver coins! Tom made a deal with The Crooked Man when he was a kid and Hellboy and Bobbie Joe along with a priest played by Geofery from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, end up having to fight The Crooked Man and his tricks.
Final Thoughts on Hellboy: The Crooked Man
Hey, at the end of the day, Hellboy: The Crooked Man is not a bad movie at all. However, it never actually felt like a movie. This felt more like the first two episodes of a Hellboy TV show than an actual movie. It has some very cool stuff and I love the world building and the bits of lore about The Crooked Man, Tom, the Witch, and especially stuff we get about Hellboy’s mother and his birth. They had some great ideas here and I think had this been the pilot for a TV show, I would have been all in on this as a TV show.
As a movie, I have a feeling that those who spend money to see this on the big screen may be a bit disappointed. It also has a very strange release, this is a movie that is being put onto streaming in some parts of the world, but also getting a theatrical release in other parts. If you like Hellboy, especially if you like the comics as well as the movies, give this a watch, you will probably have fun with it. However, if you are expecting another action packed thrill ride like the other movies, you may be disappointed.
