"Hellboy: The Crooked Man"

As they transport a giant spider across Appalachia, somthing goes awry and Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence agent/partial demon man "Hellboy" (Jack Kesy) and first-time-in-the-field reasearcher Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) find themselves stuck in the sticks. First looking for the spider and a phone, they soon realise that something dark lurks in these woods, and it is very much their job to fix it. Alongside a pleasant enough country boy here to meet his parents (Jefferson White), they find themselves drawn into the legend the locals call "The Crooked Man"...

After the festering pile of executive tomfoolery in the shape of a film "Hellboy" (2019) and continued sagas of screwing over Guillermo Del Toro, this one comes as a bit of a surprise. Nobody was begging for one, there was not an ounce of build up, and it dropped the same weekend as "Megalopolis" (excited to watch that fucking trainwreck! Stay tuned!).
It's actually alright.
From one of the directors of "Crank", it is a mish mash of tones and genres, but just about sticks the landing. It is at its best when it is about the American folklore, the strange backwater superstitions and the "odd folk in the woods", left behind in the post-War countryside and fending for themselves with witchcraft and bargains. The build up is rushed and over-tightened, and the atmosphere doesn't quite get the air it needs to breathe and be as scary as it wants; but there are some spooky images (I appreciate the pitch black backdrops, and a juddering, jarring nightmare edit of a serpent on a lady) and some old-school horror played straight. The main villain isn't as spooky as I wanted him to be, but when the movie starts to breathe and take off, and be about a blue-collar guy and his bookish sidekick helping a regular-Joe fight zombies; it's fun! Kesy is fine as Hellboy, and I wish there was more Adeline Rudolph, and honestly it's kind of an interesting and refreshing take having the hero/lead character be Jefferson White's Tom Ferrell. It all adds a pleasant peasant-eye view to proceedings. I like the campier B-movie silliness as they use blessed shovels to fight demons, but when it tries to tie into "lore" and "history" of our titular hero, whom we are seemingly expected to simply know, it doesn't feel as earned as it could be, though I like the editing of the parallel traumas between Song and Hellboy.
This one I can see becoming a cult classic. It just about sticks the landing with its juggling of genres, and uses its lower budget well. Nothing too egregious sticks out in terms of mess (despite the MOUNTAIN of producers attached) and it is a solid rental.