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Some bummer news coming out of comic-inspired horror this week - Hellboy: The Crooked Man has been pushed from its theatrical release to VOD-only on October 8 (in the US, at least, which makes me question the whole "independence from Britain" thing). It's an ill omen for a movie already facing an uphill battle, one that was called "low-budget" when it's first trailer came out, and not as a compliment. Moreover, it's not great news for the idea of Hellboy on film, which studios may be nervous to get behind after the 2019 reboot of the franchise flopped at the box office. Personally, I think critics were way too harsh on David Harbour's outing as Big Red, but the point still stands: Hellboy's silver screen viability is in trouble.

As a massive Hellboy fan, that idea makes me very sad. Mike Mignola's creation is perfect for big screen adaptation, an opinion I've held ever since seeing Guillermo del Toro's 2004 movie on TV. Actually, I'm willing to bet you hold a similar belief, loyal reader - if you weren't introduced to Hellboy by del Toro's movies, their timeless brilliance at least could have made you fall more deeply in love with him. But that's just the problem we're here to talk about: even though they masterpieces in their own rights, Hellboy's survival as a move character depends on us leaving the Guillermo del Toro movies in the past.

Allow me to explain.

If Guillermo del Toro isn't making his Hellboy 3, no one else should try it

I'll take the time to acknowledge just how awful it is that we never got an ending to Ron Perlman's Hellboy story. We never learned the truth of his mysterious Angel of Death from The Golden Army, never got to meet his children that were teased at the end of that film, never even saw him become (or refuse the mantle of) the Beast of Revelations. That is a tragedy and, believe me, when they invent the machine that takes you to other timelines, you can bet I'm hitching a ride to the Hellboy 3-verse (after I go see The Lord of the Rings starring David Bowie as Elrond, of course).

But just because Guillermo del Toro didn't make his Hellboy 3 doesn't mean someone else should. Del Toro's vision was singular, one that took the "mythic hero" aspect of Hellboy from his comic storylines and built a new mythology on its back. And brilliant though that idea was, trying the same thing again is only going to lead to disappointment. Firstly, because it would feel like a del Toro ripoff, and secondly, because it takes a whole lot of lore to build a cinematic mythology these days.

I mean, just look at what happened in 2019.

Hellboy 2019 flopped because it was too ambitious

As I said before, I think critics were entirely too harsh on the 2019 Hellboy reboot, but I also see good reason that it flopped in theaters. Star David Harbour credits that to the idea that "people didn’t want us to make the movie," saying that fans were loudly opposed to a reworking a franchise "we thought could be reinvented." But with all respect to Mr. Harbour, I think Hellboy 2019's chief failing was exactly the opposite - it tried too hard to redo what del Toro did, to recapture the magic of a sprawling fantasy saga with Hellboy as its mythic hero.

Remember how jam-packed full of plot that movie was? We went from Lobster Johnson killing Nazis to Merlin revealing the Sword in the Stone to Alice Monaghan's goblin baby subplot - all fantastic when told in the span of three decades of comics, but confusing and hard to connect with in two hours of film. I understand the desire to build a world as expansive as del Toro did, especially in today's connected-universe-driven media, but the reality is that that's been done before, and quite well. What Hellboy movies require now is a different recipe, one that still uses his outstanding comic book history as ingredients, but makes a different dish altogether.

Fortunately - and feel free to call me an optimistic idiot - but it seems like that's next on the menu.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man's indie-horror feel is cause for hope

Speaking to Total Film in August, director Brian Taylor described his vision for Hellboy: The Crooked Man as very different from what's come before. "Nobody wants to see a cheap knock-off of a Guillermo del Toro $100-million movie," Taylor said, essentially making my point in fewer words (but hey, this is what I get paid for). And he's right; even the Crooked Man's detractors have to admit that the film is starkly different from del Toro in tone, swapping high-fantasy for gritty horror. And when you think about the Crooked Man comic, his point feels even stronger; that story fits Hellboy squarely into his "paranormal detective" role, rather than the Joseph Campbell-style "Chosen One" part he plays in other stories. 

That, even more than my love of horror, is why I'll be checking out Hellboy: The Crooked Man when it comes to VOD Octoer 8 (unless anyone would like to pay for my trip to the UK?). Despite the fact that Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy movies are some of my favorite comic adaptations ever put on screen, I'm excited by the idea of a different take on the character, and hopeful that this new version will inspire even more, still different iterations to come. And if that difference means that some critics are going to call the next batch of Hellboy movies "low budget," well...

Maybe "low budget" will turn out to be a compliment after all.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." We couldn't agree more, which is why we think you should check out horror aficionado Greg Silber's list of the best horror movies of all time. Or, if you've already seen those classics, check out our list of the most underrated horror movies from the past couple years. And if you've already seen all of those, Let us tell you what to look forward to (or dread) in Popverse's list of upcoming horror movies.