10 Reasons Why Hellboy II: The Golden Army Is Still ICONIC
8. The Creature Designs
In 2008, Guillermo del Toro was just coming off of having won all of the foreign cinema awards with the masterpiece that is Pan's Labyrinth, a film chock-full of the kinds of horrific and unique monsters that only del Toro's brain could have dreamt of.
Fresh off of this, he went straight into work on Hellboy II and the results speak for themselves. This is positively overflowing with continuously surprising and awe-inspiring creature designs. From the ethereally beautiful design of the last elemental Forest God, to the design of the elves and the Golden Army themselves, to the way even the designs of Hellboy and Abe are refined to be even more entrancing, this thing is the cinematic embodiment of monster madness.
Of course, perhaps the most stunning display in the entire film is the Troll Market sequence, which sees del Toro mixing digital and practical effects to create dozens-upon-dozens of new creature designs to fill every nook and cranny of the frame. Each is hauntingly beautiful in its own way.