Hellboy – The Crooked Man and the 2K Blu-ray Edition
The lukewarm commercial reception has relegated the work to the background compared to the artistic project
Far from the blockbuster-style action hero, Hellboy – The Crooked Man brings the famous red demon back to his true territory: folkloric terror and cursed legends. Set in the Appalachian Mountains of the 1950s, the film follows Hellboy (Jack Kesy), a young B.P.R.D. agent, trapped in a remote community haunted by the mysterious “Crooked Man,” an entity that feeds on the souls of the living.
Brian Taylor (Crank: High Voltage) is at the helm, while the screenplay is penned by none other than Mike Mignola, creator of the original comic. A collaboration that restores the gothic and melancholic soul of the character, too often sacrificed in previous cinematic adaptations.
Beyond the many detractors, there are also those who loved it
With a budget of approximately 20 million dollars, Hellboy – The Crooked Man doesn't focus much on spectacular effects, but rather on the atmosphere of rural landscapes, uneasy silences, and superstitions that transform into nightmares. The result is a film with a strong identity, a pulp horror that combines American folklore and demonic suggestions, which unfortunately many did not like.
Shot digitally with unofficial hardware and native 4K resolution, the best Home Video release is this 2K on a single-layer BD-25, with an original image format of 2.39:1 (1920 x 1080/24p), AVC/MPEG-4 encoding. The cinematography by Ivan Vatsov (The Hitman's Bodyguard, The Expendables 3) is deliberately subdued and visible in this edition, despite the SDR and the greater dynamic compression of the lights. Blacks are moderately deep, with solid overall retention, and slight compromises and minimal banding (interrupted color gradients) in the background, more evident on large screens. Overall, a quite pleasant technical spectacle.
Dual DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks (16 bit) in Italian and English are both very interesting, in terms of stage presence, dialogue, and effects. The subwoofer is not deep but its presence is still perceptible. The US edition is so stripped down that it only offers audio in Dolby Digital(!), so kudos to Eagle for deciding to raise the technical level of the offering.
As extras, there's the trailer. Embossed cardboard slipcover, collectible card.