Welcome Back to the Dark Ages
For those who were reading them in the 90’s, comics were considered to have entered the Dark Ages. This appellation was in contrast to comics’ Golden Age of the 40’s or the Silver Age of the 60’s. Serious comics like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns had given way to the more superficial visual shorthand of big swords and even bigger guns. These took the place of bat shuriken or sai as the cool super-weapons of the comic page. There were also chains and spikes, robotic arms and variations on the hand knives made popular by THE WOLVERINE (2013). But there was one which gave the finger to these overwrought accoutrements, it was the red stone arm Mike Mignolia drew when Dark Horse Comics published Hellboy: Seed of Destruction in 1994.
Dark Horse published Hellboy under an imprint titled Legends. This publishing imprint was a response to the launch of Image Comics by the artists who gave theaters SPAWN (1997), DEADPOOL (2016) and DEADPOOL 2 (2018). The Dark Horse Legends imprint has one other notable theatrical success, Frank Miller’s SIN CITY (2005) and SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (2014). The imprint folded in 1998 but the Hellboy the comic proved popular enough to see semi-regular publication by Dark Horse to this day. Dark Horse’s luck with seeing other titles adapted for the screen remains spotty at best; for every THE MASK (1994), there’s a BARB WIRE (1996). Though some readers might nurse an appreciation for JCVD’s mullet in TIMECOP (1994).
Pop-culture’s fixation with the 90’s went mainstream with explosive success of CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019). This trend shows few signs of abating what with the upcoming MEN IN BLACK INTERNATIONAL also being based on a 90’s era comic. Beyond comic book characters, upcoming movies are reviving some form of 90’s era character or franchise on an almost monthly basis this year. Just a few of the movies hitting theaters in 2019 include DETECTIVE PIKACHU and ALADDIN in May, THE LION KING in July, IT: CHAPTER TWO in September and TERMINATOR: DARK FATE in November of 2019. All of them reflect the 90’s, what we remember of it or would rather forget.
Perhaps this symptom of a creatively bankrupt Hollywood, cynically cashing in on preexisting brands and creating nothing new. Or perhaps it is collective recoiling from the slow-motion apocalypse skirting the edges of our newsfeed or darkening home theaters. In either case, Hellboy has returned to bump back at those things that go bump in the night.
The Devil’s Throat or The Beasts of Bulgariawood
If you’ve read any of the Hellboy comics, then some castle in Bulgaria is as likely a setting for a Hellboy adventure as, maybe, a haunted bar in Tijuana. For Bulgaria and its heathy haunted tourism trade, Hellboy’s arrival is akin to destiny. There, the 90’s were full with whole different sorts of changes; their first free elections took place in June of 1990. When Guillermo del Toro’s first film adaptation HELLBOY (2004) premiered, Bulgaria had joined NATO and more importantly, drafted the Film Industry Act, its express purpose was the saving of their floundering movie industry. The state-owned Boyana Film Studio had difficulty adapting to the fall of communism, but survived on co-productions with out-of-state producers and acting as hired facilities and technicians for big budget productions.
By 2007 Boyana Films formalized their status as the private company Nu Boyana Film, owned by the Hollywood based companies Nu-Image and Millennium Films. Readers may well recognize the movies which this productions studio has released over the years – CONAN THE BARBARIAN (2011), 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (2012) THE EXPENDABLES – Parts One, Two, and Three (2011, 2012, 2013), MECHANIC: RESURRECTION (2015), THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD (2016) and BOYKA: UNDISPUTED (2016); the fourth in Scott Adkins’ martial franchise. Of course, those Undisputed films benefited from the hard work of Adkins and fight choreographer Tim Man. Regardless, we can see a house style in development. If you want frights catch a Blumhouse production or check out the growing body of disturbing films out of Poland. But if want to see asses kicked (or shot at) then about every other Nu Boyana should have that covered.
In terms of budget, those films are certainly no MCU production, or even Sony, who’s Universe of Marvel Characters (SUMC) has only VENOM (2018) and the superior SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (2018) so far. If SONY pursues a studio style at all, hopefully it’s based on the latter film. In HELLBOY, Nu Boyana has what could be its true tent-pole franchise, one that perfectly suits their own aesthetic. Armed with this, they might pull off what Universal Studios has failed to with their Dark Universe. Populated by DRACULA: UNTOLD (2014) and THE MUMMY (2017 - starring Tom Cruise not Brendan Frazer or Jet Li), their attempt at a cinematic universe cowers in the shadows like a scared bogart.
Un Sangriento Lucha Libre
HELLBOY Director Neil Marshall tag-teams with Academy-award-winning visual effect artist Joel Harlow and in-house fight choreographer Georgi Manchev. While Marshall has helmed a handful of films which enjoy cult status, he is more popularly seen as a T.V. director. But those are no ordinary television series he directs. Take for example, episode 9 of GAME OF THRONES (2011 - 2019) Season 4: The Watchers on the Wall, a truly cinematic episode given edge by swordmaster C.C. Smiff.
Harlow in the meantime is a heavyweight in the rings of television and the movies as far back as the older Avenger franchise, THE TOXIC AVENGER (Part 2 and 3, both 1989). Movies readers will recognize include THE MATRIX RELOADED (2003) & REVOLUTIONS (2004), PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END (2007) and BLACK PANTHER (2018). In speaking of HELLBOY, Harlow says “Who doesn’t want to see a good old-fashion monster fight? I know I do.” And he does.
Youngest among this trio is Bulgarian born Georgi Manchev. Martial artist and journeyman stuntman, Manchev got to work with the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping on the set of John Fusco dream project THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (2008). As well as stunts for most of the above-mentioned Nu Boyana productions Manchev has taken punches and falls in ASSASSIN’S CREED (2016), JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 (2017) and a couple of fight-heavy GAME OF THRONES episodes as well.
Together, these three craft a most pulpy Hellboy. Hewing closely to the source material, this is a more sardonic take on the lovable oaf Del Toro and Ron Pearlman portrayed two adaptations. Their proposed third film never saw production and perhaps it is better that way. It freed Gueillermo to up his game with PACIFIC RIM (2013), CRIMSON PEAK (2015) and THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017) which earned him his first Oscar.
From the movie’s tequila fueled opening to the increasingly grotesque creature design of the story’s apocalyptic apotheosis, there is plenty of Del Toro love on display in this reboot. It quietly allows that some version of those previous films happened. The movie dashes from action scene to action scene, delivering story in hurried conversations or bellowing arguments in between. Almost everyone gets a flashback origin sequence as well. Marshall’s experiences with television gives it all an episodic quality nodding to those black-and-white serials of our grandparents’ youth and those pulp heroes Hellboy is both modeling and taking the piss out of.
HELLBOY's cold open is narrated by the incredible Ian McShane, immediately establishing the wry tone that will carry much of the movie’s humor. Much of the rest of the movie’s humor comes from Hellboy abuse or the bizarre deaths, caused by or executed upon the menagerie of monsters that make it on screen – Changelings, Demons, Devils, Ghosts, Giants, Goblins, Lamia, Orisnizi, Pixies, Vampires, Werecats and Witches, particularly a wonderfully malevolent Baba Yaga. Manchev’s stunt team and Harlow’s FX crew work over-time to deliver entertaining and messy battles. Of course, the stakes grow larger with each one.
BPRD vs. KFM
It should have a sword in it. That’s a guiding principle here at KungFuMagazine.com and this is as true for weapons racks, wall decor, images and movie reviews. There are a couple of swords to be drawn in HELLBOY – there’s the flaming one you’ve already seen, but there’s another one, big enough to shame the comic weaponry mentioned above. There is some spear action as well, but a completely different sort as what was mentioned in our review of HELLBOY II: GOLDEN ARMY (2008) titled HELLBOY II vs. Jet Li? by Dr. Craig Reid.
But beyond the weaponry and comics, KFM readers have been aware of Hellboy since its casting complications. When it was reported that English actor Ed Skrein was cast to play a character who is Asian in the comics, this production stumbled right into the heated discussion of media white-washing. Wisely, Skrein stepped away from the role making way for Daniel Dae Kim to take on the role as Hellboy’s foil. It’s a small role made smaller by some CGI blurriness but if the Nu Boyana gets the sequel they’re clearly hoping for then improvements to their FX budget and a closer reread of the source material could make subsequent installments truly Hellacious, in the good way.
