Hellboy (2019)

[Nightmare Asylum]

I've read maybe seven or eight trade paperbacks worth of the comics, and it's really good stuff. I'm very into various world mythologies, folklore, literature, etc. and the comics tap into all of that in such cool ways. Read some of the various offshoots as well, like Frankenstein Underground. Haven't read any of the B.P.R.D. titles, though, or Hellboy in Hell which is apparently excellent.

Love what I read of the comics, love del Toro's films (in a very different way), and.... I have not bothered with the 2019 film, which I thought looked absolutely dire. Jury's still out on this new one (glad it isn't using generative AI shit), though I really wish we could have just gotten a proper third film to cap off del Toro's trilogy before moving onto what is claiming to be a move comic accurate reboot. Also, I feel like Hellboy as a character and the world he inhabits would lend himself very well to an animated film, if given the Spider-Verse level of care (and, presumably, a comparable budget to see it through) that strives to actually look like Mignola's artwork come to life on screen. I think that would appeal to me more than yet another live action reboot, just 'cause of my pre-existing attachment to what del Toro has already done in that space.

[KiramidHead]

Things like Perlman's age and Selma Blair's MS make me think the time for a Hellboy 3 has passed, sadly.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Yeah, I'd never expect one now (unless somehow that ends up as one of the animated projects del Toro could do, given that he wants to dedicate so much of his career to animation now), but I just long for what could have been as a concluding chapter in the trilogy in the early 2010s or so.

I think if the trilogy had been run to its natural end, rather than cut short, I would probably be more open minded each time a reboot with a new take was announced.

[KiramidHead]

I think this one is at least taking a more reasonable approach, adapting a standalone, smaller scale story. I'd be less cautious about it if Millennium didn't f**k up so spectacularly the last time.

[BlueMarsalis79]

Selma Blair has MS? That's terrible. I'd absolutely no idea.

[Prez]

Been collecting Hellboy trades since the early 2000s. Had to stop a few years ago as a) was becoming too expensive and b) ran out of room to house them all. There are plenty of great standalone stories in their to draw upon.

The 1950s Hellboy series has actually been my favourite. Just finished reading The Visitor story and that was great.

I'd kill for a BPRD series. Each episode could be its own thing with perhaps an undertone story arc for each season - much like X-files used to do.

[SM]

BPRD digital copies on Humble Bundle

Deluxe includes the Hellboy comics they had up a little while back.

[Nightmare Asylum]

https://x.com/EW/status/1807747764215857285

Looks like a fan film/student film on a shoestring budget, just all shallow depth of field shots floating around a nearly empty forest with a few characters (and some really minimal makeup for Hellboy) wandering through the frame. Another one to skip, it seems.

I miss del Toro's Hellboy so much.

[Prez]

https://x.com/EW/status/1807747764215857285

Looks like a fan film/student film on a shoestring budget, just all shallow depth of field shots floating around a nearly empty forest with a few characters (and some really minimal makeup for Hellboy) wandering through the frame. Another one to skip, it seems.

I miss del Toro's Hellboy so much.

The tone doesn't feel right at all. Getting Blumhouse/Conjuring horror vibe about this. Doesn't seem to have any of the sarcastic dark humour that underlies so much of Mignola's work.

[GoTenDu]

The tone seems much more like the comics than any of the Del Toro movies.

[Nightmare Asylum]

I'm all for a more comic accurate, horror movie adaptation of Hellboy (I love the comics, and del Toro's two films, which I absolutely adore, are kind of "in name only" takes on the comics in certain respects in a similar way that Burton's Batman movies were), but... this iteration being a horror movie isn't enough to push me into caring much about it after that pretty abysmal trailer. It has absolutely nothing at all going for it stylistically, just feels like something pumped out on the cheap to hold onto the rights (not sure if that actually was the case here but that's 100% the impression it gives off). Feels very pre-streaming era direct to DVD so far, even.

I think at this rate, post-del Toro's iteration (God, I still wish we could have gotten one last film from him to finish off his story before moving onto attempts at a more comic-accurate reboot), if they really want to make good on a promise to deliver a more Mignola-accurate Hellboy movie, the only way it's gonna work would be to do it as an animated film.

[KiramidHead]

The mostly empty forest thing suits the story they're adapting at least.

[Prez]

I'm trying to temper my initial reaction with the hope that it might be poor marketing decisions on the trailer than anything that felt so off tone.

[426Buddy]

Oof

Not liking the looks of this. I never even watched the last one

[GoTenDu]

I'm all for a more comic accurate, horror movie adaptation of Hellboy (I love the comics, and del Toro's two films, which I absolutely adore, are kind of "in name only" takes on the comics in certain respects in a similar way that Burton's Batman movies were), but... this iteration being a horror movie isn't enough to push me into caring much about it after that pretty abysmal trailer. It has absolutely nothing at all going for it stylistically, just feels like something pumped out on the cheap to hold onto the rights (not sure if that actually was the case here but that's 100% the impression it gives off). Feels very pre-streaming era direct to DVD so far, even.

I think at this rate, post-del Toro's iteration (God, I still wish we could have gotten one last film from him to finish off his story before moving onto attempts at a more comic-accurate reboot), if they really want to make good on a promise to deliver a more Mignola-accurate Hellboy movie, the only way it's gonna work would be to do it as an animated film.

I don't know, man. For me, the trailer looks just like the comics. I'm looking forward to the film.