Hellboy (2019) Review: Why David Harbour's 17% Rotten Tomatoes Reboot Is Secretly Great

If you remember the 2019 Hellboy reboot at all, you probably remember it as the one that bombed. A 17% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes will do that to a movie. But on Slept-On Cinema Episode 52, Stan Steamer and GrobeStreet watched Neil Marshall's blood-soaked, practical-effects-heavy, Lovecraft-by-way-of-Guillermo-del-Toro reboot and came out the other side asking the same question: how did this get an F from critics?

Spoiler: they both loved it. GrobeStreet's opener sums up the whole review — "I didn't even know this movie existed… I can't believe these low scores in general." If you're the kind of viewer who wants comic-book movies to actually feel dangerous, this one's for you.

The Premise: David Harbour Replaces Ron Perlman, And The Deck Is Stacked

Released April 12, 2019, the Neil Marshall-directed reboot cast David Harbour (fresh off Stranger Things) as Hellboy, with Milla Jovovich as the resurrected blood witch Nimue and Ian McShane as Professor Broom. Daniel Dae Kim (Jin from Lost) joins as Major Ben Daimio. The plot: King Arthur-era sorceress wants to end humanity, Hellboy is the only one who can stop her, and a Baba Yaga side quest gets thrown in for good measure.

The shadow it had to outrun was enormous. As Stan notes on the podcast, "the first two Hellboy films were directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Ron Perlman." Following two cult-favorite originals with a hard reboot starring a different lead? Brutal setup. But GrobeStreet argues Harbour "absolutely nailed the role."

Why Hellboy (2019) Deserves Reevaluation

The numbers tell a weirder story than the headlines suggested. The film opened at #3 against the second weekend of Shazam! with $12 million, and finished with $55 million worldwide on a $50 million budget. Stan's take: "I think everyone called this a massive flop that doesn't sound like a massive flop. Five minus 50 sounds like five to me."

It wasn't a hit, but it wasn't the catastrophe the discourse made it out to be. And critically, Stan and GrobeStreet agreed: if this movie had been released in a vacuum — without being compared to del Toro's films — it would have scored dramatically higher. The reboot isn't trying to be a del Toro movie. It's trying to be a hard-R horror-fantasy, and on those terms, it works.

The BOLO List: Stan and GrobeStreet Flag What To Watch For

Every Slept-On Cinema episode kicks off with a BOLO — Be On the Lookout — where both hosts flag the specific details that make a slept-on film worth your time. Hellboy 2019 has some great ones.

Stan Steamer's BOLO picks:

  • Hopper from Stranger Things (Harbour, obviously)
  • King Arthur and Merlin
  • A crystal ball
  • Daniel Dae Kim — "Jin from Lost"
  • Colors — "lots of colors, and very intentional use of colors throughout"
  • Big weapons — "everything in this film is just big, big wedding of weapons"
  • An absolutely disgusting kiss ("just so gross")
  • Puke people
  • Giant heads
  • A great credit scene

GrobeStreet's BOLO picks:

  • Braided back hair
  • CGI gore
  • Booze — "good amount of booze"
  • Metal
  • A gift from dad
  • A facelift
  • A goal
  • Incompatible zodiac signs
  • Two post-credit scenes — "don't turn the move until it's over"

Sleeper Pick: The Dying Art Of Lettering By Hand

Stan's sleeper pick is one of those details only a Slept-On Cinema host would catch. In a quiet moment, a BPRD agent's name is lettered onto a memorial wall by hand. Stan's reaction: "I can't get enough of people lettering things by hand in like, really intricate ways… I feel like it's a dying art." In a movie mostly remembered for gore and giants, that's the kind of small craft choice that earns a reboot the "slept-on" label.

Draft Pick: Quick Healing vs. The Giant Ambush

Every episode features the Draft Pick — each host claims their favorite scene or element from the movie.

Stan's Draft Pick (concept): Quick healing. His defense: "I'm taking the just the concept of quick healing… I think that is the best superhero power… He takes that spear through the heart, and he bounces back, because he heals right away." It's an argument about what makes comic-book physicality fun to watch, and Hellboy 2019 commits to it.

GrobeStreet's Draft Pick (scene): The giant ambush sequence. "The scene where Hellboy was ambushed was the same scene as the giant scene… it does what Hellboy does very, really, really well… he gets hit really well. He gets cracked and across the whole field… and he's like, I'm gonna have to feel that tomorrow." This is the kind of set-piece critics glossed over and fans keep rewatching.

One Change To Turn It Into A Blockbuster

Every review ends with the hosts' one change that could have pushed the movie into hit territory.

Stan: Break it into two films, and lean harder into horror. "I think it needed to be multiple movies so you could spend some more time… break it into two films… I'd like to see a little bit more of the dark horror darkness that I think they originally intended to go in with… I wanted it more dark."

GrobeStreet: Fully agreed — "totally agree too long and too short." The movie tries to cram too much plot into one runtime, and the fix is the same fix the MCU has used a dozen times: give the story room to breathe across two films.

Production Trivia: The Del Toro Shadow, The Troubled Reshoot Reputation, And A $50M Swing

Some context the 2019 critic pile-on often missed:

  • Director: Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Game of Thrones) — a legit horror pedigree.
  • The Perlman shadow: The first two Hellboy films were Guillermo del Toro / Ron Perlman joints. Following them with a reboot was an uphill fight before a frame was shot.
  • Budget vs. box office: $50M budget, $55M worldwide. Not a flop in the colloquial sense — more of a wash.
  • Release date collision: Opened against the second weekend of Shazam! in April 2019.

Bumper Sticker Line

From Episode 43 forward, every Slept-On Cinema review includes the Bumper Sticker Line — a quote from the film that would absolutely work stuck on the back of a car.

Stan's pick: A counter-destiny quote — pushing back against the idea that fate has already been written.

GrobeStreet's pick: "Where's my effing violin?" — a clear signal to the driver behind you that you do not, at this moment, care about their problems.

Spin-Off Pitches: Baba Yaga Origin, Lobster Johnson, And Hellboy vs. The Deathless

Hellboy 2019 is packed with side characters and mythology the hosts wanted more of.

Stan's pitches: A Baba Yaga origin series — "I feel like you would easily make a whole series of Baba Yaga… she's eating children bones and soup… there's a lot there" — plus a full Lobster Johnson franchise: "Give me the lobster… give me his Nazi killing movies." (Guest host Kai took Lobster Johnson with the first overall pick: "he's amazing, and he's a Nazi Hunter, which is great.")

GrobeStreet's pitch: Hellboy vs. The Deathless. A direct sequel based on the post-credits scene: "I want to see what happened after that… with the Baba Yaga talking to a mysterious thing… some guy named the Deathless… Just give me that movie. And let's do more of this world."

Drink Pairing: Hellboy Cinnamon Whiskey (Yes, It's Real)

Stan: Hellboy branded cinnamon whiskey. "There's actually a Hellboy branded cinnamon whiskey. So it's basically fireball, but it is a Hellboy brand. So I think cinnamon whiskey is kind of perfect for this film as it is."

GrobeStreet: Booze straight from the bottle. "A bottle of booze, of whatever you want that preferably has a little kick to it that you drink out of the bottle… maybe you just have the Hellboy cinnamon whiskey out of the bottle. Okay, good to go."

Why Hellboy (2019) Still Works

The 17% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is a score from April 2019, delivered by reviewers still holding the movie up against Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Watched on its own terms — as a hard-R horror-fantasy directed by the guy who made The Descent, with a lead who went on to become one of Netflix's biggest stars — it's a dramatically better movie than its reputation suggests.

It has great gore, an honestly weird King Arthur subplot, a Baba Yaga design that deserves its own movie, and enough practical-creature work to remind you what comic-book movies felt like before everything turned beige. Stan's verdict: "This movie's Great… they have all been phenomenal." GrobeStreet's verdict: the low scores are unbelievable, and if the film had been released in a vacuum, it would have scored far higher.

That's the whole Slept-On Cinema thesis in one review.

Listen to the Full Episode

Hear the whole breakdown on Slept-On Cinema Episode 52, including the guest-host Lobster Johnson draft pick, the full Baba Yaga rant, and Stan and GrobeStreet's case for why 2019 Hellboy deserves the reevaluation the internet never gave it.

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like this one — we've got 75 more episodes on movies critics slept on.

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