The Hellboy films by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro are considered among the best superhero adaptations to cinema: the director's fascination with monsters and the supernatural overflows the screen, providing the perfect sensibility to Mignola's material with a perfect — and unsurpassed, to date — actor for the lead role: Ron Perlman. Inspired by the character's debut comic, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, the movie narrates the struggle of the titular demon alongside the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense to stop the Apocalypse, of which he is a fundamental part.
The second Hellboy movie directed by Guillermo del Toro wasn't a sure deal: it required the wave of recognition he received with Pan's Labyrinth to finance Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Contrary to what one might think if unfamiliar with the comics, this is an original story created by Del Toro and Mignola, eager to tell a tale about ancient gods. The sequel allowed the two creatives to explore wild ideas that were acclaimed by fans, and it is considered even better than the original by some. However, plans for a sequel faded due to Del Toro's complex schedule, and interest waned over time. Though the director envisioned the story as a trilogy, it remained unfinished.
Given the poor reception of the reboot, it was decided to start over once again, making this fourth Hellboy film actually another standalone story. Inspired by the comic of the same name, The Crooked Man is a smaller, more contained story set in the 1950s, with Hellboy investigating a small community occupied by witches in the Appalachian Mountains.