2008 Summer Arts Preview

Opens July 11

Just before he wreaks chaos on this world, the fearsome albino prince from another dimension (Luke Goss) warns, "I will call upon the help of all the children of the earth: the good, the bad — and the worst." Unlocking spectacular beasts from our collective nightmares is a specialty of director Guillermo Del Toro, the prodigiously gifted Mexican auteur who hopscotches from Spanish-language art films (The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth) to Hollywood genre pieces (Blade II, the original Hellboyin 2004). For his second go at Mike Mignola's Dark Horse Comics hero, Del Toro reunites with his favorite actor, Ron Perlman, who plays the cigar-chomping, aviator-goggles-wearing, demonic-tail-wagging title character. Hellboy is again buttressed by his team of Earth-savers (Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Hurt). But Del Toro will be the real star here. He is able to put on film fantastic images that for almost any other moviemaker would be, literally, unimaginable.