Hellboy (2004)

Hellboy (2004) starring Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair

Hellboy – the most unlikely of superheroes, a human/demon hybrid fights to save the Earth from demonic invasion. With the aid of his very unusual friends.

“You have a choice! Your father gave that to you!”

— John Meyers

I normally don’t review R-rated movies here, but I’m going to make an exception. In one sense, the entire movie comes down to that one line. Hellboy is a human/demon hybrid. Although he’s physically repulsive, he’s both kind and protective. Of a world that would shun him, if it knew he existed. Very reminiscent of Ben Grimm, aka. The Thing in the Fantastic Four in that sense.

Evil occultists want to use him to trigger Armageddon. But, one of his newer friends shouts that line to him at a critical point. And, like every human being, he makes a choice. Because, as the man says, the kindly human who raised him has given him that choice. He doesn’t have to be evil, He doesn’t have to end the world. He can choose to save it.

Cast

• Ron Perlman (New Teen Titans, Beauty and the Beast TV series) … Hellboy. The titular hero. Physically strong, nearly impossible to kill. He desperately wants to fit in with humanity. Literally the strong, silent type. He’s a cat person, as well. Lonely, likable protagonist.
• John Hurt (1984, Dr. Who – the War Doctor) … Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm. The scientist who interferes with he occult ceremony in 1944. He stops the Nazi’s plans, and takes the infant Hellboy back with him to the United States. Where he raises him, not as a weapon, but as his son. He also formed the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. As he says, “There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers. Make no mistake about that. And we are the ones who bump back.” Unknown to Hellboy, he’s terminally ill.
• Selma Blair (Hellboy II) … Liz Sherman. A pyrokinetic, who unwittingly burned down her house as a child, injuring her family. She’s a member of the BPRD, but she’s withdrawn as an emotional defense mechanism. Myers helps bring her out of that somewhat. But Hellboy mistakes that for romantic interest. And, he’s in love with Liz.
• Rupert Evans (Man in the High Castle) … John Myers. The “new guy” at the BPRD. The audience learns about the clandestine organization through him.
• Jeffrey Tambor (Dr. Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas) … Tom Manning. Bureaucratic twit throughout 90% of the movie. He treats Hellboy as a “thing”. Until after Broom’s murder.
• Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) … Abe Sapien. David Hyde Pierce (A Bug’s Life) … Abe Sapien (voice). Together, these two make the amphibious, inhuman, but very likable Abe Sapien. Hellboy’s best friend, with empathic and telepathic abilities.

Villains

• Karel Roden (The Bourne Supremacy) … Grigori Rasputin. The “mad monk” who destroyed Czar of Russia? Secretly a demonic agent the whole time. The Hellboy project was his idea …. To destroy the world for his demon masters. He hasn’t given up …
• Brian Steele (Doom the movie) … Sammael. One of the demons from Hell, that Hellboy has to fight.
• Ladislav Beran (Blade II) … Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. A mute, but well-done villain. Thoroughly inhuman, his “corpse” is brought into the BRPD’s headquarters, after his presumed death. When he then murders …
• Biddy Hodson … Ilsa Haupstein. Rasputin’s partner and lover. It’s hinted at that she’s vampiric. In the end, all she & Rasputin get for their trouble is a one-way ticket to Hell.

Product Description

From visionary writer/director Guillermo del Toro (director of Blade II, The Devil’s Backbone) comes Hellboy, a supernatural action adventure based on Mike Mignola’s popular Dark Horse Comics series of the same name. Born in the flames of hell and brought to Earth as an infant to perpetrate evil, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) was rescued from sinister forces by the benevolent Dr. Broom (John Hurt), who raised him to be a hero. In Dr. Broom’s secret Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, Hellboy creates an unlikely family consisting of the telepathic “Mer-Man” Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), the woman he loves who can control fire.

Hidden from the very society that theyprotect, they stand as the key line of defense against an evil madman who seeks to reclaim Hellboy to the dark side and use his powers to destroy mankind. UHD release: As dark forces gather to hasten the Apocalypse, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) fights fire with fire in this mind-blasting supernatural action