A Look Back At The Hellboy Films

‘Hellboy’ and ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’ were released in 2004 and 2008 respectively, and are live-action films based on the Dark Horse Comics series created by Mike Mignola. (There are also two animated ‘Hellboy’ movies but I’ll save those for a different day)

For those not familiar with the title character, Hellboy (played in the films by Ron Perlman) is a demon that was discovered as a baby by Allied Troops during WWII and who now works for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Joining Hellboy, both in the comics and in the films are Liz Sherman (played by Selma Blair) who has pyrokinesis powers, and Abe Sapien (played by Doug Jones) who is sort of like a telepathic Creature from the Black Lagoon. 

Guillermo del Toro directed and wrote the screenplay for both movies, and he was the perfect filmmaker for the job. Anyone who has read the comics, like myself, will likely be pretty impressed by not only how well the characters were translated to live action but also how well the overall feel of the comics was brought to life. Both films are filled with adventure, comedy, likeable characters, bizarre creatures, and solid action scenes. In addition to all of that, it’s worth discussing just how well a lot of the visual effects were done.

 A combination of makeup, practical effects, puppets, and CGI are all blended really well. A lot of post-2000 films with this much of a fantasy aspect and with so many creatures, could’ve heavily relied on CGI to create nearly all of it. It really adds to the film that Guillermo del Toro decided to use these various methods to put as much in front of the camera as possible, and use CGI much more sparingly than many others would have. By comparison, ‘Fantastic Four’ (2005), ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ (2009), ‘Hulk’ (2003), and ‘Ghost Rider’ (2007) are just some examples of comic book movies that came out around the same time. Those films have visual effects that don’t hold up as well, yet they were made with much larger budgets.

Overall, both are fun, solid movies that I highly recommend. ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’ did slightly better with critics and was the more financially successful film but, while really enjoy them both, I am a little higher on the first one.

I give Hellboy a 5 out of 5 -and- Hellboy II a 4.5 out of 5

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