HELLBOY

HELLBOY. Guillermo del Toro, dir., co-script with Peter Briggs. Mike Mignola, comic book. USA: Revolution Studios, Dark Horse Entertainment, Lawrence Gordon Productions (prod.) / Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures (US dist.), 2004.

Classified on IMDb as, centrally, "Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi, Action"; relevant for images of mechanism associated with the occult. Hellboy enters our universe through a portal opened by Rasputin (sic: the Romanoff's "mad monk") equipped with high-tech prosthetic arm (parallel to Hellboy's rock arm); Rasputin, aided by a Nazi entourage, uses both World War II-era electronic and mechanical gear and a ritual formula. Later in the film, the villains are associated with large, Victorian-looking wheels and gears; and a key villain is a clockwork mechanism (complete with a self-operated winding key) filled with what looks like sawdust. Discussed by Edward Gross, "Hell Bent," Cinefantastique 36.2 (April/May 2004): 18 f.

RDE, 07/04/04; RDE, Title, 22Aug19