The Crooked Man Rating Confirmed

The latest Hellboy reboot is for adults only.

It may not have an exact release date yet, but one thing is for certain: the next Hellboy movie is going to be rated R. Millenium’s Hellboy: The Crooked Man has received its rating from the MPAA, which has rated the Jack Kesy vehicle R for “some violent content, language and nudity.” That description keeps up with the comic book story the film is based on, which bushes the boundaries as Big Red fights demonic entities in Appalachia.

The description also seems to double down on Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s tease of the film, who called it a true horror movie through and through.

“His intention is to make a horror movie, so that’ll be nice. That’ll be interesting.” Mignola told Variety last year. “I read the new draft of the screenplay yesterday, and yes, it is definitely R. It’s the first Hellboy script that I read and I went, ‘Oh, it’s a horror movie,’ which is what I wanted. Taylor does not have a reputation as a horror movie director. But, so far, we’ve had two horror movie directors make Hellboy movies and we’ve never gotten a horror movie.”

He added, “For years, we’ve been saying, if you’re going to make a Hellboy movie, make it small. And the perfect story to do that with is my personal favorite, ‘The Crooked Man.’ I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written. It’s beautifully illustrated by Richard Corben, and it’s a solid story that doesn’t involve a million different characters. Everybody actually agreed from the very beginning, ‘Yes, we want to do that one.’ Budget-wise, it’s good because it’s a lower budget kind of a story. It’s not the Hellboy origin. It’s not Hellboy saving the world. It’s not huge. It’s a subtle, dark, little folk horror story.” 

Hellboy: The Crooked Man stars Jack Kesy in the titular role. Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Joseph Marcell, Leah McNamara, Hannah Margetson, and Martin Bassindale will also star. Hellboy: The Crooked Man is produced by Millennium Films, and is set to be released by Ketchup Entertainment. Bryan Taylor, Mignola, and Christopher Golden co-wrote the script.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is set for release later this year.