Review of Hellboy (2004) by Charlie P — 29 Mar 2018

In the aftermath of an attack on a group of Nazis trying to unleash demons onto the Earth, an infant demon is found by Prof. Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt) and is raised to hunt down paranormal creatures for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. Sixty years later, the creature, now named "Hellboy" (Ron Perlman) discovers a plot cooked up by the infamous Russian druid Rasputin (Karel Roden) that threatens to unleash demons onto the world...

Mike Mignola's most infamous creation from Dark Horse Comics, the paranormal demon-hunting demon Hellboy, thanks to Guillermo Del Toro's clear love of the source material, is given the respect it deserves with the stylised, yet dark adaptation.

Ron Perlman relishes the role of Hellboy so much with his sarcastic wit which is impressive coming from acting under the impressive costume and suit. Both Doug Jones and David Hyde Pierce do wonders with the former's 14 year old audition tape for the Gill-man in The Shape of Water which is also impressive from a costume perspective.

Taking what learned from his previous comic book film Blade II, Del Toro takes the world of Hellboy such as demon cults, supernatural fight setpeices and the laid-back tone and gives it an epic overhaul with the usual Del Toro trademarks such as fights in enclosed spaces and the use of greens and yellows in the cinematography still being present, much like his Marvel film did with it's world of vampires two years before this film came out.

Overall, despie being a tad choppy editing wise in the second act, and Rupert Myers's character being a little too bland for this type of story, Hellboy manages to bring Del Toro's childhood ambitions to life, with one of the most entertaining comic book films of the early 2000's.