The Big Red red-neck road trip AKA Hellboy: The Crooked Man sees Mike Mignola’s comic book character take a stroll through America’s deep South. It’s a journey filled with magic, witches, blind preachers, Beelzebub and more than a few awesome accents. Throw in some CGI monsters, including a giant spider and armies of the undead and you have a real battle on your hands.
Joining the fun is a new actor playing the big guy by the name of Jack Kesy who has the swagger and world-weary chat down pat. He is joined on the journey by scientist Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) and a Junior G-Man who is dispensed with almost immediately. When their monster in a box escapes, they end up wandering through the local lands trying to find it.
The film is roughly split into two parts: the wandering part and the battle against the devil and his minions part, and they are both very different. Kesy’s take on the Beast of the Apocalypse is very laidback, and when forced to fight, he does so amidst a plethora of subtle comic innuendoes and jokes. This is a character-driven work, one less reliant on computer-generated special effects than previous outings.
It will be interesting to see if fanboys (and girls) of the franchise will take to this slightly new slant on a very well-established persona. The paring back of the threat from global to local also might present a challenge to those wanting bombastic overkill. Here is hoping the film does enough box office to warrant a second outing as this will give the filmmakers a chance to take Hellboy into new realms and take an audience with them.
Rob Hudson
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