Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Hellboy: The Crooked Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Lucky bones and witch's balls.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III January 7, 2025

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. 20 years ago, Mike Mignola's Hellboy was riding high on a then-new wave of comic book movie popularity, most specifically via two films directed by fanboy extraordinaire Guillermo Del Toro. Both earned A-grade major studio home video releases, each of them packed with bonus features and earning multiple variants to boot. Fast forward to more recent times and we got a universally panned 2019 film and now Hellboy: The Crooked Man, a straight-to-video movie distributed by the relatively new label *checks notes* Ketchup Entertainment. That's not an automatic strike against it, nor is the film's comparatively small budget, as The Crooked Man was directly based on a three-issue 2008 Hellboy limited series co-written and drawn by Mignola. Perhaps not all hope would be lost.

Truth be told, Hellboy the comic's moody atmosphere and Lovecraftian horror roots don't necessarily always warrant big-budget spectacle, which means that The Crooked Man had the unique chance to show what its characters could do for pennies on the dollar. The truth is not much, but it gets points for trying: we're dropped into Appalachia circa 1958, where Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense agents Hellboy (Jack Kesy) and Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) are traveling by train back to headquarters with their latest specimen, a toxic spider. Their trip is interrupted when the spider suddenly grows to mammoth proportions, derailing their train car and leaving them stranded in the woods as the arachnid returns to normal size and scurries away. They soon arrive at the remote cabin of a family visited by local man Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White), a former soldier who believes the area is being haunted by The Crooked Man, who's just one of many possible scapegoats for the locals' unanimous belief in witchcraft and the supernatural.

Essentially, The Crooked Man follows Tom, Hellboy, and Bobbie Jo's search for its title character, which is riddled with clues and other detours such as a stop at the home of Cora Fisher, a potential witch (and Tom's ex-girlfriend) whose body is found fully deflated. Another path leads them towards Effie Kolb (Leah McNamara), a second local witch who's had direct dealings with both Tom and The Crooked Man, and still another route takes them towards a church headed by blind pastor Nathaniel Watts (Joseph Marcell). Soon enough, their destination is reached and the use of supernatural artifacts such as Tom's "lucky bone" -- which he's had in his possession from first summoning The Crooked Man a cat carcass all those years ago -- puts Hellboy and company face to face with El Hombre Torcido.

The unavoidably linear nature of The Crooked Man's unfolding narrative doesn't leave a lot of room for storytelling creativity, with much of this film taking a beat-for-beat retelling of its source material with a few side stories thrown in. This renders the film's flow and corresponding excitement level a bit flat; basically it's an episodic journey through low-budget wilderness and dilapidated buildings with sporadic spooky encounters for added spice. This gives The Crooked Man strong "steaming original" vibes; that is to say it feels like a small-screen production with delusions of big-screen grandeur, somehow looking even cheaper than its modest $20M budget might suggest. There are clear highlights along the way, such as Jack Kesy's downright respectable performance as Hellboy (which includes a bit of inspired backstory), not to mention an appropriately creepy vibe during several supernatural run-ins. But there's too much holding this one back, from narrative flatness to occasionally very rough CGI (the opening mammoth spider is horrifically bad in some spots), and even in some of the supporting performances including Leah McNamara, a native Irish actress who fully butchers whatever regional Appalachian accent she was going for. It's still fitfully enjoyable and I'm not totally against the prospect of low-budget Hellboy on principle... but more often than not, The Crooked Man ain't it.

In keeping with that downward trend since Hellboy's glory days of decades ago, The Crooked Man arrives on Blu-ray with little fanfare and a hit-or-miss home video package from Ketchup Entertainment. No extras are included, but the real stunner is a lack of lossless audio on any HD release -- that's basically a no-brainer at this point. While I'd imagine it still meets or beats any streaming version, those who want a superior permanent copy in their collection would do well to pick up a copy of Icon Film Distribution's UK-released 4K/Blu-ray combo pack (review forthcoming).

Hellboy: The Crooked Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I couldn't really find much in the way of source specifics for The Crooked Man (even the resolution of its DCP), but Ketchup Entertainment's 1080p/SDR transfer seems to do a decent enough job with its source material on this single-layered, move-only disc, which runs at a supportively high bit rate that typically hovers in the 25-35Mbps range. This isn't exactly a bright and vivid affair as muted hues and pervasive black levels dominate most of the runtime, with occasional exceptions being vivid flashbacks and cutaways, sparse supernatural effects, and anything shot during the daytime. Crush occasionally creeps in during its darkest moments which makes some of the most dimly-lit interiors a bit tough to read, but for the most part the films cinematography is well done and doesn't hit many snags in telling its story in a clear and concise manner. Only a few sporadic compression artifacts could be spotted along the way; aside from the crush already mentioned, small amounts of gradient banding are also noticeable during especially darker scenes with distinct light sources. Even so, on small to mid-sized displays it should look good enough.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Aside from a lack of extras (and possibly the film itself, har har), the real Achilles' heel of this Blu-ray is a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track, although it's at least been encoded at 640Kbps which means it's well above typical DVD quality. And while it's a serviceable enough mix with clear dialogue, well-appointed discrete effects and a bit of heavy low end when needed, it's almost unforgivable that lossless audio wasn't included on a format made for it. Depending on your setup you may not be missing all that much, of course, but numbers don't lie and this mix certainly has a narrow dynamic range even without something equivalent to compare it to. (Translation: it's more than a little overcooked on the whole, which required me to dial back my receiver almost 10dB for comfortable listening.) As such, there's certainly room for improvement here, so that'll make my forthcoming look at Icon's UK-released 4K/Blu-ray combo pack all the more interesting. Until then, I've got no choice but to award this disc a serviceable but somewhat lacking 3/5.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only. At least we get those, right?

Hellboy: The Crooked Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover art and almost no extras.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:17) - Also available here.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Brian Taylor's divisive Hellboy: The Crooked Man is probably better (or at least more faithful to the original comics) than Neil Marshall's universally maligned 2019 film, but that's not exactly high praise. Despite a script by Mike Mignola based on his 2008 limited series of the same name, it's kind of a slog and, despite a few high points, somehow feels cheaper than its paltry $20M budget suggests. Much like any streaming counterpart, this domestic Blu-ray by Ketchup Entertainment seems like the best choice for newcomers looking for a blind buy; it's decent enough from a basic A/V standpoint but far from definitive, and the lack of bonus features is disappointing. Those interesting in a better home video option should import Icon Film Distribution's UK-released 4K/Blu-ray combo pack (review forthcoming), which promises 2160p/SDR video, lossless audio, two hours of extras, and better packaging to boot.