When Hellboy: The Crooked Man was announced, it promised to be a return to form-leaning into the horror roots of Mike Mignola's comic rather than the blockbuster spectacle of previous adaptations. With a more focused story, a period setting in the 1950s, and Mignola himself involved in the screenplay, there was hope that this would be the Hellboy film that finally captured the eerie, folklore-infused tone of the original comics.