The Hellboy Movie Nobody Saw Is Dominating Hulu’s Top Charts

Last year’s “Hellboy: The Crooked Man” seemed like a new low for the demonic hero. Shot for a low $20 million budget with little known actors, the movie’s trailers suggested even the film’s meager funds had been stretched thin. The dull as dishwater color grading was especially disappointing for a movie adapting comics known for their striking art. “The Crooked Man” ultimately skipped a theatrical release in the United States, going straight to VOD on October 8, 2024.

It seemed like that would be the ignominious end of the “Hellboy” films for a while — or maybe not, because Hulu viewers are coming to Big Red’s rescue. According to FlixPatrol“Hellboy: The Crooked Man” debuted at #1 on the platform stateside on March 10, 2025, and stayed there before dropping to #4 as of March 13.

Directed by Brian Taylor, “Hellboy: The Crooked Man” was co-written by its director, Hellboy’s creator Mike Mignola, and his frequent creative partner Christopher Golden. It directly adapts a three-issue “Hellboy” mini-series that was published in 2008 and drawn by the late Richard Corben. Both the film and comic version of “The Crooked Man” are set in rural Appalachia circa the 1950s (1958 in the comic, 1959 in the movie), aka Hellboy’s early days as a Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) agent. The story follows Hellboy (Jack Kesy) as he confronts a witch coven and the undead alongside Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White), a native son who once made a pact with the witch Effie Kolb (Leah McNamara).

The eponymous villain is Jeremiah Witkins (Martin Bassindale), a 19th century gun and liquor merchant who met his end hanging from a tree. Hell had plenty of rich men already, so the Devil sent him back to Earth to steal souls. The ghostly Witkins’ neck is still bent out of shape from the noose; hence, “The Crooked Man.”

I don’t think any Hellboy movie has quite nailed Mignola and co.’s comicsbut this one has Mignola’s stamp of approval. In a 2023 Instagram posthe wrote that he liked what he’d seen from the film’s dailies and promised, “If fans have been waiting for a Hellboy film that is actually an adaptation of one of my stories I think they are finally going to get one.”

Does the final film rise above all the negative publicity? It’s no masterpiece, and the craft pales to the (unfinished) Guillermo del Toro “Hellboy” films, but it’s not a hack job either. “The Crooked Man” at least cares about being a good “Hellboy” movie.

Watching “Hellboy: The Crooked Man,” even the reported budget of $20 million feels too high.

Kesy’s Hellboy make-up looks fine enough, even if the night scenes’ lighting dampens the red coloring of his skin. The digital monsters, though? They look and move about as convincingly as CGI from a 2009 Syfy original.

But a Hellboy movie doesn’t necessarily need a big budget. The 30 years worth of “Hellboy” comics includes a lot of one-shots and short stories. Read enough and you’ll notice a similar formula: Hellboy arrives in a new place, stumbles across a ghost or monster, defeats it, and walks off. That’s why I think a “Hellboy” TV show, specifically an adult animated one that can base its look on Mignola’s comic art, is an idea flowing with untapped potential.

Sure, there are some Hellboy epicslike the Duncan Fegredo-drawn “Darkness Calls” trilogy that the 2019 “Hellboy” movie tried adapting. “The Crooked Man,” however, isn’t one of them. It’s about 70 pages long, making it perfect for a small-stakes horror movie. The forest setting calls to mind the low-budget horror classic “Evil Dead” — levitating witch Cora Fisher (Hannah Margetson) even has a snake slither out of and around her body the way the haunted trees assault Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) in “The Evil Dead.” Meanwhile, the second act features Hellboy and co. pinned inside a church surrounded by Witkins and a zombie army; the setting and beating score evoke John Carpenter’s “Prince of Darkness.”

But Brian Taylor is no Sam Raimi or John Carpenter. To be frank, “The Crooked Man” needed more resources or someone with a better imagination for the limited ones it had. As it is, the film floats along on spooky vibes, but it can’t reach higher. Still, there is fun to be had in those vibes.

Jack Kesy has the right attitude as Hellboy. I won’t say he’s a better actor than past Hellboys Ron Perlman or David Harbour, but Kesy’s Hellboy is written more like the comic character. He’s gruff and blue-collared without the comedy of Perlman and Harbour’s Hellboys; no jokes, just some cheesy action hero one-liners. When he senses the woods are haunted and warns that “dark things call to dark things,” Kesy delivers it with weariness and self-loathing the way Hellboy should; he’s always hated that he was born a monster, and that’s why he lives like a man.

The “Crooked Man” comic is Ferrell’s journey; Hellboy is there as a supporting guide. The movie, on the other hand, makes Hellboy a more active hero, one who’s more directly responsible for Witkins’ defeat. In the film, Hellboy gets the killshot, which makes Witkins’ skull explode into pennies (apparently all his victims’ souls were worth). However, it also removes the comic’s most chilling line, where Hellboy and Tom wonder if, by killing Witkins, they freed those souls or just sent them along to Hell with their master.

The movie also brings in another BPRD agent, Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph), so Hellboy has extra investment in getting out alive. It’s not a grand romance like the one Perlman’s Hellboy had with the firestarter Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) in the del Toro movies; just two people finding comfort in each other during terrifying circumstances.

To add meat onto the comic’s brevity, the movie detours for looks into Hellboy’s past. His mother, Sarah Hughes, was a 16th century witch who birthed after her damnation. These scenes catch up those unfamiliar with Hellboy and don’t drag the story, either. Hellboy’s first vision of his mother, brought on by a poisonous snake bite, is one of the most atmospheric in the film.

If you’re not already a Hellboy fan, “The Crooked Man” is not a promising introduction. If you are, though, you’ll probably enjoy yourself for 90 minutes watching this.

“Hellboy: The Crooked Man” is streaming on Hulu.