June 30, 2008
Director Guillermo del Toro is famous now for his hauntingly beautiful fantasy film Pan’s Labyrinth, a take on the post-Civil War era in Spain and how a young girl escapes a dark, disturbing reality by disappearing into an unusual fantasy world. Earlier this decade he also produced another beautiful period piece set in Spain, the ghost story The Devil’s Backbone.
It’s a bit surprising, then, that here in the United States Guillermo del Toro was for a long time not known as a great dramatic director, but as a go to guy for CGI action fests like the quickly forgotten Mimic and later Blade II. What’s not so surprising is that when the director got his hands on a solid project like Hellboy, he produced a film that’s not only visually amazing, but imaginative and focused on a solid story.