Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024)

In 1959, B.P.R.D. senior agent Hellboy and rookie Bobbie Jo Song are escorting a train carrying a mystical spider entity back to Bureau headquarters. However, when they cross the Appalachian Mountains, the spider suddenly enlarges to monstrous proportions, forcing their train car to overturn and allowing it to escape. Hellboy surmises that the spider grew due to something evil haunting the area, admitting that he heard it calling to him. Left stranded, Hellboy and Bobbie Jo run into Tom Ferrell, a war veteran who's recently returned to atone for past sins. The agents accompany Tom to speak with Cora Fisher, a witch and Tom's ex-girlfriend, only to find Cora's "empty" body.

As they wait for the demonic familiar to return with Cora's "full" body, Tom informs the agents that he once met Effie Kolb, who told him the story of "The Crooked Man". At Effie's suggestion, Tom used a black cat carcass to make a pact with the Crooked Man, that whatever bone he held once the entity arrived would become his lucky bone. However, the sight of the Crooked Man terrified Tom enough to have a change of heart and discard the lucky bone, but it would always return and kept him safe from harm. Realizing that his actions enabled the Crooked Man to cross over to Earth, Tom has vowed to confront and destroy him. When the familiar reunites Cora's body, she reveals to Tom that the local witches want her soul.

To Tom's shock, Effie arrives on a white horse to collect Cora's soul. After Hellboy threatens Effie, Tom removes the horse’s bridle, and it suddenly transforms into Tom's estranged father as Effie escapes. Tom and his father reconcile briefly before he dies. The following morning, Tom, Cora, and the agents walk to a nearby church, owned by the blind Reverend Watts, to bury Tom's father, but Cora is attacked and killed by a demonic snake. Hellboy kills it, but its bites show him visions of his mother Sara, a witch who conceived him after willingly mating with an archdemon.

The survivors retreat inside the church, where they are confronted by the Crooked Man and his servants. Tom is tempted to return his lucky bone, but Hellboy stops him. As Hellboy battles the demonic horde, the Crooked Man attempts to entice the Reverend with eternal youth and sight in exchange for giving up Tom. Watts refuses to give in to temptation and blesses a shovel with the bone so Hellboy can use it to destroy the Crooked Man's servants and weaken him.

Hellboy and Tom chase the Crooked Man to an abandoned mansion but are assaulted with traumatic visions. Bobbie Jo, believing the Crooked Man draws power from the town's mines, enters a tunnel system through a hatch in the church floor, accompanied by Reverend Watts. A flock of demonic birds kill the old man, but Bobbie Jo is able to dispel the captive souls feeding the Crooked Man with magic, which frees Hellboy and Tom from the visions and enables them to vanquish the demon.

In the aftermath, Effie ages rapidly from losing her own eternal youth; to save her, Tom fits her with his father's enchanted bridle. Hellboy and Bobbie Jo are rescued, Tom feels a weight has been lifted from his soul, and a white horse wanders with a warning painted on its hide: "Beware! I am a Witch!".