Hellboy is a comic book movie that mostly works because it takes its source material seriously. The 2004 film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, treats the titular demon as a man first and a monster second, and that choice carries the whole picture.
The film opens with a Nazi ritual gone wrong in 1944, summoning Hellboy from hell as a baby. He is raised by Trevor Bruttenholm, a British paranormal investigator who teaches him to fight evil. By the time he joins the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense as an adult, Hellboy has become a gruff, sarcastic hero who drinks, smokes and gets into bar fights.
Ron Perlman plays Hellboy with a gravelly voice and a sneer that makes him feel lived-in. He is not a cartoon hero. He is a big red man who has spent decades cleaning up supernatural messes, and Perlman sells the weariness along with the power.
Selma Blair plays Liz Sherman, Hellboy’s girlfriend and a fellow Bureau agent. She is a psychic who can see visions of future disasters, and she carries a lot of emotional weight. Her scenes with Perlman are the film’s best, because they ground the action in something close to love.
The film is full of oddballs, but the lead relationship stays front and center. Here is how the main characters break down:
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Hellboy | The lead, a demon raised by humans |
| Abe Sapien | A fish-man sidekick |
| Johann Kraus | A disembodied head in a tank |
| Trevor Bruttenholm | The mentor |
The protagonist leans on Perlman to carry the story, and he does. His performance gives Hellboy a sense of history and humor that makes the supernatural plot feel grounded.
The action sequences are solid, with del Toro favoring practical effects over CGI whenever possible. The creature designs are sharp, and the fights are messy and physical. The climax, set in a church, is tense and well staged.
Some of the plot threads run thin. The villain, a mystical figure named Rasputin, is less interesting than the film wants him to be. The pacing drags in the middle, and a few scenes feel like filler.
Hellboy is a confident, funny, and occasionally dark superhero movie that respects its audience. It does not try to remake the genre. It simply tells a story about a man who happens to be a demon, and it does that story well.
Trailer, via YouTube Movies.
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