Rated: R18+
Directed by: Neil Marshall
Screenplay by: Andrew Cosby
Based on: the Dark Horse Comic Book, “Hellboy” Created by Mike Mignola
Produced by: Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Mike Richardson, Philip Westgren, Carl Hampe, Matt O’Toole, Les Weldon, Yariv Lerner
Starring: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim.
This is the third instalment of Hellboy, a franchise based on the comics created by Mike Mignola.
Here, we have a new Hellboy and before the screening, I wondered how David Harbour (known for his starring role as Police Chief Jim Hopper on the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things”) was going to fill the iconic role previously played by Ron Perlman.
Without issue, we get that same dry delivery of one-liners like, ‘Hellboy? No, it’s Josh. People mix us up all the time.’ He says, drool rolling out his drunken mouth.
What I’ve always enjoyed about the Hellboy films are the incredible effects. This re-boot is all what the previous films delivered, and more.
Opening on a scene of black and white, we’re introduced to the appropriately named Nimue, The Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich), her red cape the only colour to be seen in the foreground of an ancient tree.
This splash of red is a good indicator of what’s to come – when I say bloody, I mean that visceral, bloody flying through the air with bits of brain and bone, the marrow of people sucked out by giants, limbs torn off monks by a pigman and children eaten by witches.
Hellboy number three is rated R for a reason.
So yes, it’s gory. But jez, it really is a LOT of fun.
This is a story of Hellboy’s true nature, and why he was brought into this world.
He’s never fit in, looking like the devil himself. Breaking off his horns doesn’t hide his demonic appearance. Hellboy admits his, ‘Therapist says I rely on jokes to normalise.’
This is his weakness. He’s a monster living in a world of people who hate and kill monsters. And have hunted monsters for centuries.
You can only have people try to kill you so many times before it gets personal.
The Blood Queen understands this. She’s a monster too.
Bringing Hellboy to her side, to become King would mean the end of the world: the apocalypse.
Starting again, to re-build Eve together; to bring the monsters out of the shadows, doesn’t sound so bad.
So does Hellboy give in to his true nature? Or does he side with the ones he loves, his adopted father, Professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm (Ian McShane) and friend Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane), whose life he saved when she was a baby?
The script is a collaboration between the creator Mignola and Andrew Cosby.
“It was important for us, and for the fans as well, to really stick to the roots and origins of Hellboy,” says producer Les Weldon. “No one wants somebody else’s Hellboy — they want Mike’s…”
And it’s one hell of a ride with non-stop action as giants and demons and witches and humans are fought with constant asides from Hellboy to break the, at times, intense tension and scary bits.
There’re monsters that reminded me of the demons from Hellraiser.
Talking of monster’s, we also get the character B.P.R.D. Team commander Major Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) adding another dimension to the film. He’s a conflicted ex-soldier-turned-agent also from the Mignolaverse but has never been on the same page as Hellboy.
So bloody and scary, yes. But then we’ll get Hellboy asking how a terrifying, one-eyed, wooden-legged witch can have hair on her tongue.
And a moth escaping from a cave, deep underground, rising, into the air, high above, only to be eaten by a raven.
We smoothly segue from one entertaining scene to the next that’s both visually stunning and brutally absorbing.
A worthy re-boot that blurs the line between horror and action.