December 2025

Inner Demon: Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy

This in-depth look at the making of Hellboy first appeared in American Cinematographer's April 2004 issue. For full access to our archive, which includes more than 105 years of essential motion-picture production coverage, become a subscriber today Over the course of his previous films, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has become something of a specialist in all things subterranean. This is undoubtedly a good start for the director of a movie called Hellboy. Based on Mike Mignola’s popular comic-book series, the film tells the story of an unlikely superhero who is ripped at birth from the mouth of hell by Nazis and other unsavory characters (such as the mad monk Rasputin), but fortuitously falls into the hands of better-intentioned U.S....more