Starring: Jack Kesy, Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Leah McNamara, Joseph Marcell, Hannah Margetson
Distributor: Rialto
Runtime: 99 mins. Reviewed in Oct 2024
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
| 
| 
Hellboy and a rookie agent from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) become stranded in 1950s rural Appalachia, where they discover a remote community dominated by witches and led by the sinister local demon, the Crooked Man.
The independent Hellboy comics are the work of Mike Mignola. They have been successful, despite not being part of the Marvel Universe or the DC World. They had something of a spectacular introduction to the cinema world with the 2004 Hellboy with Ron Perlman in the title role and a strong starring supporting cast. There was a successful sequel and a later version with David Harbour.
The commentary was that the creator, Mike Mignola, was not happy with the previous films. However, he has collaborated with this particular episode, one of his favourite stories.
A surprise for Hellboy fans will be that this is comparatively low key in terms of spectacle but strong in terms of horror elements. The setting is 1959. The strange-looking Hellboy (Kesey) with his mysterious origin, is travelling across the US with Bobbie Jo Song (Rudolph) a transporting a magical spider to their lab for research purposes. The spider gets loose, causes death and destruction before escaping, leaving the two in Americas South to go searching.
What follows is a variation on a southern Gothic Horror, a soldier returning home to his family only to find death. And, there are strange local characters, a beautiful witch with her spells, her ability to take over other characters, especially the young man’s girlfriend. The trio then go in search of the witch for confrontations.
Audiences will have to pay a bit of attention to work out who is who, especially in the witch department, beauty and ugliness, often literal darkness, characters taking over the others, violent confrontations Hellboy having to come into his own, not always as victorious as he might like (or as the audiences might like him to be), but ultimately conquering to be available for his next episode.
Definitely a film for those who are fans of the Hellboy comics and of the vision of Mike Mignola. It will be something of a surprise and, perhaps, disappointment rather low-key, for those who enjoyed the more spectacular action-adventure films and Hellboy’s exploits.
12 Random Films…
