The most probable reason for the two men’s excellent relationship was a shared interest: H.P. Lovecraft. “Lovecraft, really the old pulp magazine sensibilities on the whole, were a huge influence when I first created Hellboy,” Mignola explains. And though the film features scenes with Nazis that seem to evoke Indiana Jones, these influences were actually drawn from sources closer to Mignola’s comic work. “I grew up reading Marvel comics, Captain America and that kind of stuff, where the best heroes were hanging out with American G.I.s, and the villains were Nazis. And I wanted to root my story in that world, because to me that was when comics were the best—the era of Jack Kirby, who’s of course another huge influence.”

“The first 20 minutes is pure Mignola,” del Toro says, “and then we have a detour of about 30 minutes when we go to an urban environment that the comics never go to. But the ending, where everything becomes almost surreally gothic underground in Moscow, that goes back to pure Mignola.”

Hellboy balances dark, supernatural moments with funny and light-hearted ones.

Heart of a Beast
All the filmmakers agree that no one but Perlman could have portrayed Hellboy. Irastorza: “Without Ron it wouldn’t have been anything, Ron is so perfect.” del Toro: “There wasn’t any other choice but Ron.” Mignola: “I always envisioned Ron in the part.”

Their unanimity makes Perlman very happy. “Hellboy is a character that an actor could play for the rest of his life without growing tired of it,” Perlman says — or rather growls with a certain glee. “He’s got every aspect of humanity that an actor revels in exploring. His sense of humor is amazing. And he’s got this heart — my favorite part of Hellboy is his heart. What is best are those moments when his heart is revealed — when he’s around his father or his girlfriend, or when he’s asked to make the final choice. That’s when the dialectic that lives within him about evil vs. good is pushed to the furthest point — and that’s the part of playing him that’s most interesting.”

One can’t help compare Perlman’s work in the Beauty and the Beast TV series with Hellboy. “The roles I’ve gotten to play — the beast and now Hellboy, are probably the truest statements I can make as an actor. I’m very in touch with the monstrous parts of myself, and have been my whole life. And if one feels that way, one spends one’s life either overcompensating for those feelings, or learning to live with them, or overwhelming the feelings of monstrousness by making peace with them.”

del Toro also acknowledges the connection between Hellboy and the classic fairy tale. “This is a beauty and the beast story where beauty kisses the beast at the end, but instead of the beast turning into a prince, she turns into a beast. The final shot for me is beautiful because it works at the level where you’re telling people, it’s OK to be a monster. Just accept it and make it part of yourself.”

Future Dimensions
del Toro has already written a script for Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. If this is made, it will be the first time a Lovecraft story that is also a literary masterpiece will come to the screen in a faithful adaptation — an event that will almost certainly bring an entire reevaluation of horror as a genre demanding serious interest. del Toro points out that the box office success of Hellboy will determine whether he can make this classic. “It totally depends on studio financing. If I’m lucky enough that the studio understands Mountains, then by all means I’ll do Mountains. But it is a tough sell. It’s a 1920s period story, with crazy, tentacled monsters that come from another dimension, and there’s a moment when a character is praying as a creature approaches him, and the creature says, your god is as young as yesterday, my master was here for eons before. And though most horror movies turn into Aliens with all-out action, this one stays ominous and existential all the way through. We’ll see if the studio gets it.”

Let’s hope they do.

Henry Turner is a writer and award-winning filmmaker, whose Lovecraft-inspired horror feature, Wilbur Whateley, won top awards at the Chicago International Film Festival. His writing on film has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, L’ecran Fantastique, Variety and many other publications. A longtime film festival executive, he has programmed for the Slamdance Film Festival, and currently heads FilmTraffick L.A.