The latest Hellboy is a prequel, subtitled The Crooked Man, the latter a character wedged within Mike Mignola's Dark Horse saga. The movie has already played in theaters in the U.K., and now it's available via streaming on Amazon, with a disc release set for December.
Directed by Brian (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance/Jonah Hex) Taylor, from a script by Mignola and Christopher Golden, Crooked Man takes place in 1959, with Jack (12 Strong) Kesy's Hellboy teamed with Adeline (Resident Evil) Rudolph's (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) Agent Bobbie Jo Song (as well as Jonathan Yunger's doomed Agent Gates), on a train ride to the witch-ridden, Appalachian territory, as they transport a morphing, funnel-web spider. The arachnid's raucous presence is more a means to get the protagonists off the train and into a by-chance, folk-horror fable, which features Martin Bassindale's villain, Jeremiah Witkins, the Crooked Man, a once affluent fiend who's now willing to torment mountain residents with his soul-stealing stunts, gaining a penny for each spirit he seizes.
Though Crooked Man is a Hellboy tale, its complementing hero is Jefferson White's Tom Ferrell, who like other characters in this chapter, is culled from the comics. He's a humble man who's gotten himself embroiled with witches, one an old love, Hannah Margetsen's Cora Fisher, who just so happened to dabble in shady dealings later down the line, and the other, a full-fledged temptress, Lee MacNamara's Effie Kolb.
We learn that the crafty Kolb tried to make Farrell a witch in his own right and came darn close, bestowing him a mystical bone that manifests whenever he's in trouble, but he learned that the bone was linked to the dreaded and uber-creaky Witkins, who scared Ferrell enough to want to repent and repeal, but can he? Ferrell is said to be forever bound to the object and as such, the Crooked Man, who in turn is obliged to Satan. The movie is Ferrell story, as such, with Hellboy and friends being there to lend a hefty, helping hand through attempts to "renegotiate" the poor guy's unwitting pact.
Through Farrell's ordeal, Hellboy sinks deep into the story's dark psychedelia, seeing visions of his mom (Carola Columbo) and teaming with the strong-of-faith Reverend Watts (Joseph Marcell) to ward off a zombie attack. Along the way, the whispery Grammy Oakum (Suzanne Bertram) amps up the creeps, while Farrell's long-lost dad (Anton Trendafilov) layers on some mournful sensitivity. The combination is potent, surreal and edgy, enough to pull one into its wide, weird web.
Crooked Man offers lots of ideas within its peril, but it's all tied together with an eerie, laid-back simplicity, which distinguishes it from Hellboy's previous, movie chapters. Crooked Man isn't so much a dark, superhero film, in this respect, as it's a horror movie rendered in the style of Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things and Never Let Go, though at times it also feels like Twilight Zone's folk fables, "Jess-Belle" and "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank." This twisted texture is enough to make it stand on its own, even though it never dismisses the popular, cinematic and comic tropes of its previous incarnations.
I do hope that we get more Hellboy movies done in Crooked Man's style, with Kesy again in the lead. Perhaps even a Hellboy miniseries would be a nice touch. Whatever it takes to keep the character in the cinematic limelight is more than welcome, and Crooked Man is a great way to restart the tradition.
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