John of the Dead(1978)'s Horror Flick Reviews

Director – Victor Cook, Tad Stones

Cast – Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, John Hurt, Doug Jones, Peri Gilpin, Jim Cummings, J. Grant Albrecht, James Arnold Taylor

Release Year – 2007

Reviewed by John of the Dead

The animated Hellboy series continues after Sword of Storms with Blood and Iron, an equally enjoyable piece that once again gives us Hellboy & co. kicking supernatural ass in animated fashion.

We follow the crew as they investigate a large mansion purchased by a friend of the senator who funds the paranormal ass-kicking force. The mansion holds much significance to Professor Broom, who in 1939 defeated the powerful female vampire Erzsebet Ondrushko at that very mansion, and he joins the crew to ensure the the mansion is still safe. When it becomes apparent that someone is trying to bring Erzsebet back from the dead, Hellboy & co. aid the professor in finishing unsettled business after over half a century of waiting.

I really enjoyed this storyline, adapted by Kevin Hopps from Mike Mignola and Tad Stones’ story, thanks to it involving Professor Broom to a much higher level than usual. Told in the past and present time we follow Broom as he fought to vanquish a woman who believed that bathing in the blood of young beautiful women would keep her young. Of course, this dilemma was ultimately left unsettled and Broom saw the need to investigate the mansion before the senator’s friend turned it into a ghost-themed hotel. I loved watching the storyline develop with constant flashbacks to the events that Dr. Broom saw occur at the mansion, events that are now occurring all over again. Each of our characters was used positively, especially our main characters in Hellboy, Professor Broom, Liz Sherman, Abe Sapien, and newcomer Oliver Trombolt. There is plenty of action written into this piece, which I assumed would be so, and it was great in giving us numerous antagonistic character for Hellboy and his troops to destroy, including: ghosts, wolves, witches, harpies, a giant werewolf, and Erzsebet herself in several different forms. In addition to this Kevin Hopps defied cliches often associated with animated films and gave us fantastic dialogue that aiding in presenting and developing the characters so positively.

Directors Victor Cook and Tad Stones did a great job with this one, giving us awesome visuals, great sets, and the usual enjoyable elements associated with these Hellboy films. The vocal acting performances are great, and much like Sword of Storms Hellboy, Liz, Abe, and Prof. Broom are voiced by the same actors who portrayed them in the Hellboy live-action flicks, making this piece all the more enjoyable for that reason. And the action? The action was fantastic and consisted of awesome looking antagonists and plenty of brutal confrontation in this epic battle between good and evil.

Overall, Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron is an awesome animated flick sure to please fans of the Hellboy series thanks to it giving us all of the same sweet elements found in the live-action films.

Rating: 8/10

Director – Guillermo del Toro

Cast – Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Alexander, James Dodd, Seth MacFarlane(voice), Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hurt, Brian Steele

Release Year – 2008

Reviewed by John of the Dead

Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy remains one of my favorite superhero movies to date, and while he outdid himself with his follow-up film, Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro continued his Hellboy saga with Hellboy II: The Golden Army.  The last time I had seen this film was when it debuted in theaters back in 2008, so I was itching to see if this film was as fun as I remembered it to be…and it was.  Continuing the awesome elements of the first entry, this sequel is equally as enjoyable as its predecessor, and comes with some good horror action as well.

When a long-standing truce between mankind and the mythical creatures of our underworld is compromised by a vengeful elf, Prince Nauda(Luke Goss), Hellboy(Ron Perlman; Alien: Resurrection, The City of Lost Children, Cronos) and his team must combat the elf and his minions before he resurrects the most powerful weapon of all time…The Golden Army, an army of indestructible robots banished to a faraway place to never be used again.  As Hellboy aims to stop the elf and save humanity once a gain, he learns of humanity’s ingratitude towards him and the other “freaks” he works with, leaving him to fight for a world that now despises him.

I knew that I was going to enjoy this film going into it the very first time I saw it, leaving Guillermo del Toro(Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone, Cronos, Mimic, Blade II) as one of the few directors that I completely trust to give me a good watch every time.  This time the storyline takes a few more twists and turns, which is usually the case with a sequel given the original film must spend its runtime setting up the story.  I really loved the idea of the Golden Army in this film, and the background history involving the truce between the humans and the mythical  beings that surround them in secrecy.  The dialogue between all of the characters involved is fantastic, and definitely aids in selling the film to the viewer and assisting the pacing for this nearly two hour film.  We get numerous twists, turns, and developments as well, which come in all angles including Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz, as well as a new and unique character, Robert Krauss(voiced by “Family Guy”’s Seth McFarlane).  All in all, the storyline is great, but what else would you expect from an iconic writer?

As expected, del Toro’s direction is top-notch, and he expertly sells each scene with unique visuals and awesome camerawork.  The production value for the film is very high, and the CGI used is incredibly well done.  Surprisingly, some of the scenes that I thought were CGI were actually half CGI and half live-action, which I was astounded to learn given just how hard it must have been to film those scenes with the live-action actions involved.  We get some incredible looking characters and villains, which only add to the viewer’s enjoyment of what is going on before them.  As a child del Toro spent many years creating monsters and goblins with pen and paper, so it comes as no surprise to me that he would give us such cool looking creatures to marvel at.  As with the first film, we get great performances from all those involved, especially that lovable red beast we call Hellboy.  Ron Perlman’s return to the series came as no surprise to me, because I figure that despite the hours of make-up work it takes to “become” Hellboy, he loves the hell out of that character.  This being a sequel, the film is able to take off quicker due to it not having to introduce the characters all over again, and because of that we are introduced to more action and fight scenes.  The action sequences were awesomely executed, and came with epic sets that carried many dangers of their own due to their surroundings, which only added some sweet tension to what was already going on beforehand.

Overall, this is an awesome sequel to one of the coolest superhero films out there.  Guillermo del Toro once again delivers a tight screenplay that makes this near two hour film flow beautifully, and his direction is top-not as usual, giving us awesome visuals, great action, and superb execution of all elements involved.

Rating: 9/10

Director – Guillermo del Toro

Cast – Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Rupert Evans, Selma Blair, Karel Roden, Jeffrey Tambor, Doug Jones, Brian Steele, Ladislav Beran, Biddy Hodson, Corey Johnson

Release Year – 2004

Reviewed by John of the Dead

Anyone familiar with the comic book scene has to know of Mike Mignola’s highly successful and equally awesome “Hellboy” series.  When I first heard that this story would be turned into a full-length feature film I was beyond stoked, and when word came out that it was horror director Guillermo del Toro(Cronos, Mimic, The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth, Blade II) himself writing and directing the film my mouth dropped, and I cannot say that I have fully recovered from the ordeal.  One of the most underrated superhero stories of all time, Hellboy delivers heavily on excitement and a loveable character with more balls than all other superheroes combined.

During the final days of WWII before the collapse of the Nazi empire, Hitler’s obsession with the occult lead him to conjure up dark forces to aid his dying cause.  The Allied forces managed to obstruct Hitler’s plan to use black magic, but not before a young demon made his way into our world.  The Allies deemed this demon “Hellboy”, and he has since worked for a secret sect of the US government as their front line defense against attacks from the supernatural.  When a mysterious and well-hidden artifact within a museum is stolen by creatures not from this world, Hellboy’s usual ass-kicking antics get the job done at first, but a sinister plan from an ancient evil with ties to Hitler’s occult holds the power to bring on an apocalypse of Biblical proportions.

Nearly all of us can relate to superhero stories and films, especially if you grew up in the comic book or graphic novel scenes.  While Hellboy may not be seen as the type of superhero that Batman or Superman is, I see him as a superhero because he does the right thing, and he kicks a lot of ass doing it.

Guillermo del Toro’s screenplay is air-tight, and despite coming in at a two hour runtime his film flows and moves smoothly without any delay or slow scenes.  The bulk of his storyline comes from the “Seed of Destruction” storyline, but el Toro throws in elements from the “Right Hand of Doom” and “Box Full of Evil” short stories as well, as well as several shout-outs to “Pancakes” and “The Corpse”.  He has always mentioned Hellboy as his dream film, and it is obvious that the guy is a fan with how well this film turned out.  From the get-go we are thrown into the unique storyline of Hellboy’s origins, which I found fantastic due to the mystique involved given Hitler’s influence on the matter.  Anything involving history will grab my attention, especially if it either rewrites history or shows us elements of history that are lesser-known to the general public.  I am also a fan of the supernatural, so when you mix both the supernatural and history, especially WWII history, you have my devout attention.  From then on out we are given the awesomeness that is Hellboy, and in more ways than one.  We watch him battle the supernatural with his slew of awesome weapons and diabolical wit, which includes many unique and horrifying villains sure to please those looking for a superhero film with a strong element of horror.  What surprised me about this film was the other way in which Hellboy is awesome…he has a heart.  There is always a romantic element thrown into every superhero film, but I really was not expecting one in this film simply because of how badass Hellboy is.  I mean, he is a demon for crying out loud.  Nonetheless, we are given a well-written love element involving Selma Blair(Can’t Hardly Wait, Scream 2, The Fog remake) as Hellboy’s love interest which adds a nice human touch to this awesome superhero.  Thankfully, the awesomeness of this storyline does not end there, and we are given several other positive characters that add to the film’s enjoy ability.  For a film to run for two hours there has to be several elements to keep the viewer engaged, and Hellboy’s friends do just that.

The biggest reason behind this film’s very positive rating is the fact that del Toro’s direction is as good as his screenplay.  I mentioned earlier that for a film this long to keep the viewer engaged there would have to be several elements required to do so, and del Toro’s visuals do the trick.  Right from the get-go we are thrown into his visual masterpiece that includes numerous incredible sets and incredible camerawork, as well as awesome looking heroes and villains.  His execution of every fight scene is invigorating, and was so well done that I never noticed just how little blood the film shows until after the climax, when I noticed the film was PG-13.  He gets great character performances from all, and I applaud him heavily for stubbornly fighting for Ron Perlman(Hellboy II: The Golden Army, I Sell The Dead, Cronos, The City of Lost Children, Alien: Resurrection, Blade II, The Last Winter, The Island of Dr. Moreau – 1996) to land the role of Hellboy.  Perlman was perfect in every aspect there is, including his physical features as well as his ability to show emotion and sarcasm.  We also get a great performance from John Hurt as Prof. Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm, the man who raised Hellboy, and Selma Blair did a fine job as Hellboy’s love interest.  I do feel that a few characters were miscast, although their performances were as good as they could have been.  Rupert Evans played a strong supporting role as John Myers, but I never found myself giving much of a damn for him.  I do not really blame it on how his character was written, although that could be the case.  The other actor I felt was miscast was Jeffrey Tambor as Tom Manning.  I have loved Jeffrey Tambor(Hellboy II: The Golden Army) ever since he gave us the hilarious George/Oscar Bluth in “Arrested Development”, but I felt that he never really fit into his role in this film.  Nonetheless his and Rupert’s performances were good, so they did not detriment from the film in the end.

Overall, this is an awesome film that finally gives us a superhero with a strong element of horror and an even higher level of ass-kicking.  Fans of Mike Mignola’s comic series should be pleased with this film given Guillermo del Toro’s respectful treatment of the series, and Ron Perlman’s iconic performance as Hellboy.  A unique story and incredible direction make this a hour film an incredibly engaging watch that I recommend to all.

Rating: 9/10