Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and its myriad spinoffs are up there as my favourite comics of all time. The combo of Gothic, cosmic, and monster horror with a serving to of gallows humor works for me so, a lot. Guillermo del Toro famously made a few Hellboy motion pictures with Ron Perlman. Whereas good in their very own GDT means, neither of them (particularly the second) actually felt like a correct adaptation of the supply materials. The 2019 Neil Marshall Hellboy film with David Harbour tailored the supply materials immediately, however the film itself was very, very dangerous. Now we get Hellboy: The Crooked Man and…nicely, simply have a look. Then we’ll discuss.
First some context. The Crooked Man was a three-issue arc from Mignola and artist Richard Corben from 2008. It detailed certainly one of Hellboy’s earlier missions for the Bureau of Paranormal Analysis and Protection. In 1958 Appalachia, Hellboy encounters some witches and witch-adjacent folks and ultimately cross paths with the titular Crooked Man, a hanged struggle profiteer from the 18th Century who has returned from Hell to behave because the area’s resident Satan. He’s fairly terrifying, particularly as Corben illustrates him.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man appears to be like to be a really devoted (and small) adaptation of that individual story. On its face this can be a good factor. One of many main points with the 2019 film is that it tailored means, means, means too many tales, not least of which The Wild Hunt, the longest and most epic story within the Mignola canon. Specializing in a one-off journey and maximizing the horror is a reasonably good concept.
Nonetheless, simply taking a look at it, you possibly can see the very low price range. You might have observed the film comes our means from Ketchup Leisure. KETCHUP ENTERTAINMENT. Brian Taylor (of Crank franchise fame) is directing, with himself, Mignola, and Mignola’s Baltimore collaborator Christopher Golden on screenplay duties. Jack Kesy (who very briefly performed Black Tom Cassidy in Deadpool 2) portrays Hellboy and he simply type of appears to be like unfinished. If Harbour was TOO made up, Kesy appears to be like like an honest novice cosplay try.
So who is aware of! It might be good. It actually appears targeted extra on the precise horror. Which is the correct path to go following the darkish fantasy mishmash of the final film. However I’m not satisfied after this wack first look. I’d like it if at some point any live-action outing correctly snags the tone of the comics. Whether or not Hellboy: The Crooked Man can try this must wait till it comes out later this yr.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly popular culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You’ll find his movie and TV critiques right here. Comply with him on Instagram and Letterboxd.