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Hellboy | 2004 | PG-13 | - 3.7.3

A Nazi world domination scheme in the 1940s opens a portal to a mystical dimension inhabited by otherworldly creatures. Through the portal comes a demon who’s supposed to be Satan's offspring and is dubbed Hellboy (Ron Perlman). Hellboy is red, huge, has horn nubs on his forehead, yellowish eyes, a tail and an armored hand, and he grows up to be a force for good, becoming the protector of the citizens of Earth. Other creatures include Abe Sapien, an amphibian hominid who has gills, webbed fingers and feet, a pyrokinetic woman who can set things on fire at will, Hell Hound, a reincarnating beast with large fangs, a really long tongue, tentacles and several yellow eyes, and a man wearing a black plastic mask who has a penchant for self mutilation. Also with Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Karel Roden, Rupert Evans, John Hurt, Doug Jones and David Hyde Pierce. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. [1:52]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man and a woman kiss, and a woman kisses a man. A woman and a man hug and kiss. A man tells a woman that he cares for her. A man touches a woman's face tenderly. A man is seen bare-chested in a few scenes, and Hellboy is seen bare-chested in several scenes.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A vortex is opened (it's a swirling tunnel of light), bolts of light flash, there is an explosion, a large piece of equipment tips over and crashes onto the ground, people panic and run, and a man is sucked into the vortex and we see him disintegrate (he turns skeletal and then to dust as he is sucked through); also, a man is sucked bit by bit into the vortex, he hits the wall of the vortex and disintegrates, grenades explode knocking people into the air, and people shoot at each other. A man has two large knives attached to his hands, he slashes and stabs several people in quick succession, and a man is thrown against a stone pillar and pierced by a metal rod (he falls limp). A man is stabbed repeatedly and blood pours from his nose, a man is stabbed in the back (his blood fills a circular pattern on the floor where he lays) and another man rises out of a pool of blood that forms in the center of the pattern. A man is stabbed through the back of the neck (we see the knife against his neck, then hear the crunch and squish as the knife is plunged into him and later see drops of his blood on the page of a book) and falls dead. We see a mutilated corpse: his eyelids have been removed, his upper and lower lips have been removed, and he has large stitched gashes all over his body and a large hole in his chest. We then see the mutilated corpse become animated: he sits up on a morgue table, walks across a room and reassembles his parts (puts a mask on, a wind-up gadget in the hole in his chest, and a hand onto the stump of his arm). A man with horns breaks them off, stabs a man in the stomach with one, the man's abdomen opens releasing a tentacled creature that grows and slams a tentacle down on a man and a woman (we see the tentacle coming down but not hitting). Security guards are attacked by a man with knives, two shoot at him, he deflects the bullets with the knife blades and propels them back at them (they fall off a balcony); others hold guns on him and he slashes and stabs each one in quick succession, and they all lie dead on the ground (during the attack there is a flash of red but no other blood is evident). Two creatures (Hell Hounds) chase two men, one is caught and we see the creature with the man's head in its mouth, the other creature catches a man, holds him on the ground and feeds on him (we see the man knocked down and then the creature thrashing, chomping, etc.). Slime drools down from a ceiling where a creature (Hell Hound) feeds on a man (we see the limp body being thrashed and then it is tossed to the floor). A man is grabbed by a huge tentacled creature, he is dragged through a tunnel slamming into lights along the way, he grabs a belt of grenades, he is dropped into the creature's mouth where the grenades explode tearing the huge creature to pieces (we see blue slime and pieces everywhere. A man fights many other creatures (Hell Hounds), he is tossed around, crashing into rock walls, and a pyrokinetic woman bursts into flames and burns the creatures and many egg mounds (we see them burn and turn to char). A man is slashed by a masked man with knives, then a man is slashed across the nose (we see the cut and blood). A man punches the masked man and dents the mask, he pulls him into a pit with spears and he's impaled (we see him dangling with a spear through his abdomen). A man grows long horns from his forehead, flames dance around them and his arm glows. People are surrounded by walls with spears sticking out toward them. A creature (Hell Hound) jumps onto the back of a subway car, tears off the door, snarls and snaps at people inside, runs through the train and jumps off the other side onto the tracks; a man follows, he hangs onto the door of the subway car with his feet dangling onto the tracks, he is hit hard by the conductor with a fire extinguisher, falls under the train and knocks his head on the underside several times (his has horns that turn red hot). A creature (Hell Hound) jumps on a man holding him down and drooling on him, and the man touches the train track and is jolted with electricity causing the creature to burn and turn to char. A man and a creature (Hell Hound) fight: they fall down a chute, one is nearly hit by a subway train, the man is thrown into a wall (it breaks up behind him), pounds the creature's head repeatedly with a pay telephone box, part of a structure falls down, and he has many glass shards sticking out of his back; the man grabs the creature by the tongue, spins it around, hangs it over a ledge and the creature is swept away by a passing train. A creature (Abe Sapien) swims and is chased by another creature (Hell Hound) who attacks him (we hear chomping and crunching and see him later with large gashes on his chest). A man and a creature (Hell Hound) fight: the man shoots the creature, he's hit hard and is tossed through the air slamming into a door, crashes through glass panes, falls through a window, and crashes into a dumpster landing on the street; the creature wraps a tentacle around the man's arm and it is shot. A man is knocked down by a car, and another man punches the hood of a car causing it to flip in the air and crash onto the street. A man is chained and his arms and head are in stocks. A woman hits a man in the head with a sledge hammer. A man trips a woman and kicks her in the head (she lies unconscious), and a man slaps a woman in the face. A pyrokinetic woman is engulfed in a blue flame and the room she is in bursts into flames, and a huge explosion rips through the building shattering glass walls and blowing two men back through the air (we see charred rubble later). A man's hand is burned by a cross. A man sucks the soul (a blue glowing vapor) out of an unconscious woman's mouth. A man jumps into a grave, opens a coffin, awakens a corpse (we see part of a decayed corpse, which has grey, shriveled skin, milky eyes, an exposed spine and no lower half) and carries it on his back to find the location of another corpse. A man chases a masked man through tunnels and shoots at him. A huge stream of flames shoots out of a monolith, through the sky, hitting an ice cocoon that melts releasing many tentacled creatures (they're referred to as the "gods of chaos"). A huge pendulum swings and breaks up a bridge that people are standing on; one person is knocked off the bridge into an abyss, another is thrown across to safety and another barely makes it to safety. Children throw rocks at a little girl and call her names, she begins to glow with a blue flame and cries for help. A pyrokinetic woman and a man are engulfed in flames when they kiss and hug. We see several dead security guards lying on the floor (no blood is evident). A creature (Abe Sapien) digs into a large cut on a man's arm and pulls out eggs that had been laid by another creature (Hell Hound) and they talk about him having been burned by an acid. A pyrokinetic woman has a scar on her forehead that glows. A man talks about another man having been poisoned, stabbed, castrated and clubbed. A man has a bloody wound on his leg. A creature (Hell Hound) grows out of a pile of dust and green vapor. Using an electric sander a man files down the horns on his forehead to flat nubs. We see a small bone in liquid and hear that it is the bone of someone's finger. A severed bit of a creature's (Hell Hound) tentacle flops around in a dish. A man is hit in the head with a thrown stone. We see skulls and skeletons in a crypt. We see many eggs hatching into creatures (Hell Hounds). Many large beetles scatter when a manhole cover is opened. A man stumbles and appears weak (we hear his heart pounding and he says that he is dying). We see many newspaper headlines about sightings and the existence of a "half-man, half-devil" creature. A man jumps across rooftops, falls short of one and dangles from a ledge. We see X-rays of a man's brain and chest. A person burps.

LANGUAGE 3 - 7 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 12 mild obscenities, 1 religious profanity, 5 religious exclamation.

SUBSTANCE USE - People are shown drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Demons, Satan, Hell, supernatural creatures, black magic, the occult, paranormal phenomena, Nazis, Rasputin, re-incarnation, fitting in, love, jealousy, being unique.

MESSAGE - The choices we make, make us who we are. Evil will always come back.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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