We have to talk about the absolute train wreck that is Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024).
And when I say train wreck, I mean industrial disaster proportions. It’s wild how far this franchise has fallen.
Twenty years ago, Hellboy was an iconic superhero film, directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Ron Perlman. It was as important to superhero movies as X-Men and Batman—not necessarily in box office returns, but in critical acclaim. It helped establish Dark Horse Entertainment as a go-to source for fresh movie properties. But when you compare that film to Hellboy: The Crooked Man… wow. How the mighty have fallen.
This latest Hellboy didn’t even get a theatrical release in North America. It was dumped on Prime Video with little fanfare, and I doubt it’s made back its budget. Speaking of budget, this entire film was made for $20 million—that’s $30 million less than the already underperforming 2019 Hellboy reboot. It was shot in Bulgaria to save costs, and the cast lacks any real name recognition. Jack Kesy, who plays Hellboy, was almost certainly paid far less than Ron Perlman or David Harbour.
Word on the street is that Millennium Media, the production company behind this film, is teetering on bankruptcy. They made The Crooked Man just to retain the rights to the Hellboy character, which is why no major studio wanted to distribute it. Instead, Ketchup Entertainment picked it up and quietly dumped it on Prime Video.
I haven’t even mentioned the plot yet, and there’s a reason for that—everything I just described affects the final product. But here’s the gist: Hellboy: The Crooked Man is based on one of the most critically acclaimed stories from the comics. If you love that story, you’ll be happy to know the film is extremely faithful to it. It doesn’t diverge at all. The movie takes place in the 1950s, with Hellboy traveling to the Appalachian mountains, where he encounters a community plagued by witches and a demonic figure known as the Crooked Man, who makes deals for people’s souls. Naturally, Hellboy won’t stand for this, and that’s our conflict.
I’ll give the movie credit for one thing: it doesn’t pretend to be family-friendly. It’s rated R, and it earns that R. It’s creepy, it’s unsettling, and it has a great Southern Gothic aesthetic. Unfortunately, the film just can’t deliver what it’s going for. The budget is part of the problem, sure, but let’s be real—I’ve seen Asylum and Roger Corman films with a fraction of this budget that did far more with far less. I’m talking movies made for $500,000, maybe $1 million. And yet, despite having $20 million to work with, Hellboy: The Crooked Man looks like a YouTube fan film.
And that’s not just me saying it—critics have pointed it out. It genuinely looks like a bunch of Hellboy cosplayers grabbed some cheap Nikon DSLRs and started filming. I’ve seen Star Trek and Star Wars fan films made on shoestring budgets that look better. The color grading is flat and drab. Yes, it’s horror, but horror doesn’t have to look ugly. To make matters worse, the film tries to cover its limitations with bizarre camera effects—random speed-ups, weird motion blurring—none of which help. It just looks amateurish.
And where did that $20 million budget go? Was it the CGI? Because, again, I’ve seen low-budget indie films with better effects.
But the worst offense? The sound design.
Oh. My. God. The sound in this movie is atrocious. It’s hard to even hear the actors. They mumble, they whisper, they speak in low voices, and then ambient background noise drowns them out. I don’t understand why so many modern movies refuse to let the audience hear the dialogue. And before anyone asks—yes, I have a good sound system. I’m not watching on a TV speaker or a soundbar. I have a full 5.1 surround system with Dolby. The issue is entirely on the production team.
Critics have universally panned the film. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 37% score. Metacritic gives it 44/100. IMDb? 4.5/10. Letterboxd? 2.3/5. And honestly, I think that’s generous. I suspect some people are rating it higher just because they love Hellboy. And look, I get that—the story itself is fine. There’s nothing wrong with the source material. But the film’s production completely fails to bring it to life. Even fans of the story agree: the execution is what kills this movie.
And that’s the thing—I’ve seen movies rated 1/10, movies people call “the worst film ever made,” and you know what? A lot of those films had budgets of $10,000. When you consider that, it’s kind of impressive that they even got made at all. I can’t be too hard on them. You scraped together ten grand, cast your actors, shot your scenes, edited the film—you made something.
Movies like Velocipastor or The Atlantic Rim—sure, they’re not good, but they make the most of their resources. Meanwhile, Hellboy: The Crooked Man had twenty million dollars, made by people who’ve worked in the film industry for decades—people who went to film school, have production experience, secured financing—and this is what they came up with? A movie that looks like a low-budget B-movie at best—but, in reality, looks like a YouTube fan film?
Yeah. I’m gonna go ahead and say Hellboy: The Crooked Man is worse. I don’t recommend it. It’s not worth watching. If you want to experience The Crooked Man story, do yourself a favor—just read the comic. Skip this one.
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