Category Archives: Movie Monsters
The Angel of Death
It is all the same to me, my heart is filled with dust and sand.
As with many other key characters of Hellboy II, the Angel of Death was first envisioned by Guillermo Del Toro as a notebook sketch. From there, the character went through different iterations at the hands of concept artists like Wayne Barlowe, and ended up being art-directed by Norman Cabrera at Spectral Motion.
The Last Elemental
It is an elemental. A giver of life and a destroyer. A forest god.
Mister Wink’s demise enrages Prince Nuada, to the point where the elf royalty, in retaliation, unleashes a Forest Elemental to kill Hellboy. The creature first appears in a small, bean-like shape; upon contact with water, it grows into an immense, 100-foot tall tentacular plant-like monster.
Wonders of the Troll Market and Beyond – Part 2
A Hungarian mine cave housed the gigantic Troll Market set, one of the biggest built for Hellboy II — a vibrant, busy environment filled with practical and digital creatures — which Del Toro wanted to deviate from usual design standards. “Each artist was free to bring forth as many sketches of creatures as they wanted,” Del Toro explained. “The only condition was to veer away from ‘movie monsters’ and make the creatures more surreal and exotic, reference things other than film: engravings from the middle ages, Hieronymus Bosch, the arabian tales, etc, etc. Barlowe had the best batting average… 8 out of 10 of his designs made it to the screen. But we treated these creatures like extras. We seldom, if ever showcased them — I felt this was crucial to treat the market like you would any other location… to make it real.”
Mister Wink
Mister Wink — Prince Nuada’s musclebound henchman troll — was born as a drawing in one of director Guillermo Del Toro’s notebooks: an ape-like humanoid with a large prosthetic mechanical hand that could be deployed from the arm through a chain and then retracted. As defined by concept artist Wayne Barlowe, “his huge artificial arm and hand seem like a direct counterpoint to Hellboy’s Right Hand of Doom.” The mechanical arm and hand also served the purpose of making Mr. Wink visually belong to Hellboy’s world.
Wonders of the Troll Market and Beyond – Part 1
Although the first Hellboy film was rich in creature effects — both practical and digital — its sequel increased the workload with an ambitious roster of monstrous characters. To design the creatures and bring them to the screen, work was split between Spectral Motion, Solution Studios, Creature FX and DDT Efectos Speciales. Creature designs started from sketches by director Guillermo del Toro or Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, and then passed over at the companies for further refinement and selection of effects methods that could portray them effectively. Certain creatures were entirely practical or digital, whereas others employed both effects systems. Certain expedients used in Pan’s Labyrinth — such as the use of green screen creature suit portions that would be erased in post-production — were also recycled for the project.
The Moder
“Maybe it was just a gut instinct,” said David Bruckner, director of The Ritual, “but we always knew — maybe it had something to do with the fact that it’s about masculinity in crisis — it’s sort of this old Norse Viking nightmare that these modern men have wandered into; that the movie should always go for it, in the end. Whatever that means. So we always knew that we wanted to reveal, in one way or another, what it was. There are many movies that I admire that are withholding until the end, and like I said, we just felt that wasn’t this film.”
Scum of the Universe — Men in Black II, part 2
To convince the neuralyzed Kay that what he is saying is true, Jay shows Kay that most of the workers at the postal office are actually aliens. Dozens of concepts were devised, and ultimately nailed down to four.
Scum Of The Universe — Men In Black II, part 1
Rick Baker and Cinovation Studio returned to design and give life to the creatures for Men In Black II, accompanied on the visual effects front by Industrial Light & Magic. Like its predecessor, the film posed an ambitious challenge of bringing to the screen a vast array of practical and digital creatures; and yet, Sony Pictures demanded completion of the project in a fraction of the time the same teams had been given to produce the first film.
Scum Of The Universe — Men In Black II, Serleena
Responsible for the design of Serleena’s various forms throughout Men In Black II were Rick Baker himself and ILM art director David Nakabayashi. “The trick,” recalled Nakabayashi, “was to give Serleena creature continuity, even though it would be seen in many different forms. There had to be visual cues telling the audience that Serleena was one creature.”
