‘Hellboy: The Crooked Man’: Big Red Goes Lower Budget - Trailer

Jul 29

From Ryan Cordaro

I haven’t been the biggest fan of Hellboy. It’s not that I don’t even hate the movies, he’s just not a character I’ve really gravitated towards before. I feel like I’ve just been waiting for the right moment with the character, something that makes him stand out to me as someone who hasn’t read the comics before. Out of what I had heard about the character, it always felt strange to me that the movies haven’t been more influenced by horror movies. Sure, there’s little bits here and there, especially with Guillermo del Toro’s two films, but those are just horror moments; I’ve been hoping for a full-on horror movie, either live-action or animated, since I’ve seen a lot of takes about Hellboy going back to animation. It seems like we’re getting that now with The Crooked Man.

The third live-action iteration of Big Red is being played by Jack Kesy, and while the other movies pull inspiration from different Hellboy comics, The Crooked Man will be the first to directly adapt a Hellboy story into live-action, arguably one of the more famous ones. Set in the 1950s, Bobbie Jo Song, a rookie agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), finds herself in a dire situation when tasked with delivering a new creature to the Bureau. She enlists the help of Hellboy to confront the Crooked Man, a local devil who has returned to Earth to harvest souls for the devil. The Crooked Man is directed by Brian Taylor, who’s main collaborations with Mark Neveldine include the Crank movies. On his own, he’s made the Nicholas Cage-starring Mom and Dad, as well as creating the SyFy series Happy!. I think that going in a horror direction could work in this movie’s favor, even with the lower budget.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man stars Jack Kesy (12 Strong, Deadpool 2), Adeline Rudolph (Resident Evil, the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2), Jefferson White (Yellowstone, Civil War), Leah McNamara (Vikings, The Gentlemen), Joseph Marcell (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind), Hannah Margetson, and Martin Bassindale (Masters of the Air, Smothered).