Let’s starting digging into things ever so slightly diabolical with this particular entry from Guillermo Del Toro, adapting one still rather unique comic book series. Mix up some holy water as we talk Hellboy…
The graphic novel series by Mike Mignola is one that stands out to me for its art style, and what a style it is. Mignola makes gorgeous use of black palettes and shadow, often constructing shapes just from flashes of color, and his angular style gives everything a very distinct look. It’s one that fits the rather sombre mood of the story quite well—that story being of, well, Hellboy, a demon accidentally summoned to Earth by a Nazi occult ritual in WW2, only for him to be raised as a protector against threats occult and eldritch by a government agency. There’s often a rather melancholy tone to it beyond just punching things, and sometimes things aren’t as clear-cut in dealing with creatures beyond human ken as one might think from this kind of thing.
Del Toro didn’t take on all of those aspects when producing his film version in 2004, with a somewhat more heroic tone—but that being said, his love for the source material was definitely on display, and above all else he remembered to keep it fun. While his screenwriting is kind of hit and miss, one thing Del Toro always nails is the visual style—as exemplified by the opening scene. We have an atmospheric as hell ruined cathedral turned into Nazi military outpost laden with bizarre machinery, clockwork ninja officers, and occult experimentation—just at a glance, we know everything we need, and it only gets nuttier from here.
The cast is spot on too—master of chins Ron Perlman nails the lead character despite under layers of makeup, delivering oh so well that slightly grouchy devil-may-care (forgive me) attitude, and Doug Jones, future co-lead of Shape of Water, also excels in his costumed role as a psychic fish person (this making…slightly more sense in context). Selma Blair also plays pyrokinetic Liz Sherman, presented here as more of a straight love interest to our main character, and also to one of the weaker elements here, Rupert Evans as audience surrogate character Agent Myers. There’s nothing bad strictly about him, he’s just a generic whitebread character you almost forget exists by the climax.
John Hurt is also on point as mentor Butterholm, and between all this, that’s what makes this enjoyable even if the storyline isn’t supremely complicated. It’s largely our leads going up against an evil reincarnated Rasputin (Karel Roden) trying to end the world for rather fuzzy reasons, but between the sincerity of the actors and the presentation, it works fine enough. We have the fun practical props Del Toro often gives us, some nice looking set pieces, and that’s what makes this a satisfactory ride.
A few years later we had a sequel with Golden Army—one that played up the romance melodrama a bit more, and had some typically annoying evil elven characters, but at the same time also cranked up the creature effects with an array of effects and costumes that are still most impressive, including one memorable role by Seth MacFarlane of all people. While I preferred the first a little more, I’ll also grant that this one had some real solid moments, with a very well done scene involving a truly horrific looking Angel of Death. A third film that bridged the best of both was promised, but never materialised.
What we got instead was a reboot in 2019 starring Sheriff Hopper himself, David Harbour in the role—and while he was trying his best I think, what he was given was a poor script that turned every character into a foul-mouthed jackass, with some convoluted tiresome plot and dreary effects. There’s been another much lower budget version recently that promises to stick closer to the source, and while I haven’t seen it yet I’ve had some people recommend it to me.
Either way, the original Hellboy is sort of Del Toro in a nutshell—a bit rough around the edges at times, but with enough exuberance that you certainly won’t feel damned for having watched it…
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