10 MORE Horror Movies That Actually Benefitted From Bad Acting

Arriving sooner than anyone really expected, Hellboy: The Crooked Man crashed onto screens last Autumn, and suffice to say, it's not great.

This was the second reboot in so many years, and didn't make any effort to fix the stylistic issues of its predecessors, leading again with the whole camp, dude-in-a-rubbery-muscle-suit thing. Director Brian Taylor's effort to amp up the horror element is a valiant undertaking, but has served to make the film look like a cross between the original Hellboys, Constantine, and, well, a kind of high-budget YouTube production. And the acting is something to behold.

The performances on show from Jack Kesy (Hellboy), Jefferson White (haunted everyman Tom Ferrell), and Adeline Rudolph (paranormal agent Bobbie Jo Song) go from flat as a board to unconvincingly melodramatic, to almost totally disinterested, with nobody quite finding a home in their roles. 

And yet, paired with the film's plentiful and overt horrors, these elements are almost certain to make The Crooked Man a cult movie in years to come. Like its stablemates, the film is downright ugly, and belongs in the '90s of the Power Rangers, not the technological 2020s - but this is all the more reason to love it. Once the hardcore fans have had time to cool off, we can enjoy the movie as a silly addition to the already unserious universe it exists in.