The nature of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy is that it walks pretty easily in the worlds of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. While that’s a big reason why the character has remained popular for decades, it has made it difficult for Hollywood to nail down what works as a movie. Guillermo Del Toro delivered two fan-favorite Hellboy movies with Ron Perlman as the big red guy, but box office didn’t come with them. In 2019, Neil Marshall had David Harbour suit up for a reboot, and that didn’t work for anyone. And now there’s another attempt, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, that finds Jack Kesy in the title role. Will it work where the others haven’t?
With Jack Kesy playing Hellboy, the film is directed by Brian Taylor, one-half of the directing duo behind Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. He last directed the underrated 2017 dark comedy Mom and Dad, which reunited him with Nic Cage. As for Hellboy: The Crooked Man, one look at the new trailer tells you it didn’t have the budget of those other attempts, but that could work in its favor. The film has a grounded atmosphere that lends itself to the creepy Appalachian setting, as a coven of witches led by a devil overtake the town.
Joining Kesy in the cast are Adeline Rudolph, Jefferson White, Leah McNamara, Joseph Marcell, Hannah Margetson, and Martin Bassindale. The film has a script by Mignola and notable Hellboy comics writer, Christopher Golden. Nobody knows the character better than these two.
Here’s the synopsis: In the 1950s, Hellboy and a rookie BPRD agent, stranded in rural Appalachia, discover a small community haunted by witches, led by a local devil with a troubling connection to Hellboy’s past: The Crooked Man.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man opens later this year.
The first trailer for ‘HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN’ has been released
In theaters later this year. pic.twitter.com/73lW4LiFix
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 1, 2024
