At The Movies: Hellboy – The Crooked Man

This one has a bit of everything for horror movie fans – monster spiders, massive snakes, lots of attacking crows, witches, crunching of bones and plenty of dead people getting killed (again)!

Hellboy (Jack Kesy, Death Wish) and Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) are travelling on a train through the Appalachian region in 1959. Bobbie is a non-field BPRD agent (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) and they are transporting a very large magical spider to the lab for research. However, the spider wakes up fighting and in the ensuing carnage their compartment fall off the train and the spider escapes.

Looking for a phone they come across a secluded house. Inside is a young boy lying motionless who, they are informed, has been bewitched. Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White, Civil War) arrives and said that the boy had been given a witchball by Cora Fisher (Hannah Margetson) – the recipe for this witchball sounds extremely gross by the way!’

On the way to Cora’s house, Tom reveals he has also had run-ins with the demon known as the Crooked Man and his right-hand woman Effie. Tom also carries a lucky bone which is supposed to allow him to use magic, but he has never used it. When the trio get to Cora’s house, and find her deflated body (!), is when the movie really starts to get bizarre. They wait for Cora to “return” to her body – and then the fun starts!

They are confronted by the Crooked Man and Effie, Tom’s estranged father, crows, vicious insects, etc. Tom’s father is killed during this, and Tom carries him to the local church so he can be buried in consecrated ground. The blind Reverend Watts is waiting for them – apparently expecting them. This is when things really take a turn, but you will have to go and see it for yourself to find out.

Movie Review By John Glennie

Showing in cinemas from 10th October and at Monster Fest 2024
Rating: MA15+
Runtime: 99 minutes