Hellboy: The Crooked Man looks a bit cheap in its first trailer, but the horror vibes might just save it yet
This is the third time the comic book character has been adapted to film.
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The first trailer for the latest take on Hellboy, this time subtitled The Crooked Man, is here, and it looks… ok!
Hellboy is generally quite a recognisable figure, in one part because of his iconic design (sawn off horns? Giant fist? Classic!), but also because of Guillermo del Toro's take on the character with his pair of films. So of course there would be more attempts to capitalise on the comic book series' rich history, with 2019 seeing the arrival of the David Harbour led Hellboy that ultimately bombed at the box office. Now, five years on, there's another take in the form of Hellboy: The Crooked Man on the way, with the first trailer arriving yesterday. This third take on the character actually has a script co-written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, with the film's director Brian Taylor also helping to pen the script alongside author Christopher Golden.
You can check out the first trailer for the film above, which to be perfectly honest looks a tad cheap. If you told me this was a fan film I'd probably believe you, as while the makeup on this Hellboy (played by Jack Kesy) looks pretty good, if you go back and look at del Toro's Hellboy, you just can't help but think the original looks better. One thing I do appreciate about the look of The Crooked Man is that it appears to be going for more of a horror vibe compared to the previous three films, which definitely fits the character's whole vibe.
Director Taylor isn't a stranger to comic book adaptations either, as he also previously wrote Jonah Hex, and directed Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and the TV series Happy! Hellboy: The Crooked man is based on the comic of the same name, and is set in 1950s rural Appalachia, where the titular character comes across a community haunted by witches led by a local devil that's somehow connected to Hellboy's past. It doesn't have a release date just yet, but it's supposedly "coming soon."