Sympathy for Monsters

Hellboy (dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2004) presents many sympathetic monsters; mainly Hellboy (Ron Perlman), Liz (Selma Blair) and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones). Del Toro crafts a world very similar to our own but combines comic, steampunk and Lovecraftian aesthetics. Botting comments that “Gothic fiction begins with the invention of a feudal, romantic and supernatural past” (83), Hellboy uses many gothic tropes as well as the elements presented by Botting to create sympathetic monsters.

Hellboy and his team are given a home in return for fighting evil and defending the Earth, causing them to form a found family. Broom (John Hurt) adopts Hellboy when he is a child and allows him to live a safe life at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence, hereby referred to as the BPRD. Broom may be seen as being in charge and ‘above’ Hellboy and Abe, but still treats them with respect.

Broom views the ‘freaks’ around him as almost human but whilst those who are evil are inhuman. “We appreciate that not all monsters are dangerous - even if they might be different from us” (McConeghy) This is a point that Broom strongly stands by, he corrects Myers (Rupert Evans) when he refers to Abe as ‘it’, he is aware of Abe’s capabilities and appearance and will not allow him to be dehumanised in any way. Broom also has an understanding of dangerous monsters, when he performs an autopsy on Kroenen (Ladislav Beran) Broom refers to him as a creature rather than a person. Kroenen appears to be human but is incredibly inhuman. He is a feared Nazi assassin and is almost respected by both Nazis and the allied soldiers. Due to his human appearance, he is accepted into society, something that Hellboy and Abe are unable to do, something which is incredibly unfair. Evil has been given an opportunity to live a normal life but those fighting to protect the planet are unable to fit into society, and this fact allows the audience to feel pity and sympathy for them.

McConeghy comments that “Seeing the townsfolk gather with pitchforks reveals who the monsters really are”, humans have become the real monsters of the first Hellboy film. The film opens with a group of Nazis and Rasputin (Karel Roden) working to summon a supernatural force in order to win the war. The audience is already well aware of the atrocities committed by the Nazi party, this allows del Toro to set up humans as the real monsters from the outset, as well as allowing the audience to be sympathetic to the BPRD’s cause. Kroenen is stated to have a ‘surgical addiction’ and is revealed to have mutilated his body to become virtually unkillable. He is not physically run by natural means, instead, he runs by clockwork. Broom asks ‘what god would keep such a creature alive’; humans have gained so much power and influence that they have become these monstrous gods, keeping deadly servants alive.

Broom acts as a median between good and evil. He asks, ‘What makes a man a man?’, a key question throughout the film. Hellboy is not a man yet has the morals, emotions and experiences of one, he is even shown as being morally better than a regular man. He is willing to sacrifice himself in order to save a world that continuously rejects him. In comparison, Rasputin is willing to sacrifice everything, including his lover, in order to get what he wants.

A complicated romantic relationship is shown between Hellboy and Liz, and Abe is shown to experience a tragic, doomed relationship in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2008). Liz is the most human looking of all the ‘freaks’ and has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to her struggling to control her power and mental outbursts. Liz has been doing incredibly well while staying at the institution and is learning how to control her powers, She and Hellboy must carefully look at “The balance between obtaining knowledge and the sacrifices necessarily made for it”(Friedman and Kavey, 205), another key theme of Hellboy. This means that they have to have a difficult conversation about not seeing each other again even though they feel very strongly about one another. The audience is able to see how hurt Hellboy is and are able to sympathise for and with him.

Abe is shown to be a lonely bookworm until the second film, in which he meets Princess Nuala (Anna Walton). Nuala becomes his tragic love interest as she must die in order to stop her brother, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), from ruling the world. Their relationship is doomed from the start, with her psychic powers causing Nuada to find the BPRD and get one step closer to world domination. We see very human emotions through these characters and their relationship, we see happiness, love, loss and grief; these emotions allow the audience to empathise and sympathise with Abe, Hellboy and Liz.

An altered supernatural past is presented, and the audience is presented with the ‘truth’ of the Second World War, a history filled with secrets and supernatural beings. Part of this altered history includes Rasputin opening a portal to summon a great evil that will win the war for Germany. Hellboy comes to the human world from this portal, he has been given an evil destiny, having been summoned to be used as a pawn for world domination. This is a destiny that he spends his life avoiding and doing the opposite of, protecting innocent people from the ‘things that go bump in the night’.

Hellboy files down his large demonic horns in order to try and fit in with those around him. The need to fit in is something the audience can relate to, whether it be changing their appearance or personality to fit in with those around them. Hellboy’s horns are fully regrown when he is manipulated at the end of the film. He snaps them off, shortening them, this time not in an attempt to fit in but as an act of defiance and self-acceptance.

Del Toro shows that even though Hellboy is not from a human dimension he still has incredibly strong ties to it and those in it. It is Hellboy’s ties to the human world, mainly through his ties to his father, that allows him to break his trance. Myers gives him his father’s rosary, a highly sentimental object, Hellboy realises that “Sentiment ties us to our fellow beings” (Morrissey, 321), despite his appearance, he realises that this ‘good’ world is one he belongs to and must defend. Hellboy’s humanity and care for a world that does not care for him is what saves him, this causes the audience to pity Hellboy. The audience roots for Hellboy to break out of this trance to save the planet as we have come to realise that Hellboy is more human than the humans he is fighting against.

Del Toro does present some unsympathetic monsters, Kroenen and the Ogdru Jahad, which allows the audience to compare Hellboy to them, allowing them to see the very human emotions that Hellboy, Abe and Liz feel. This also allows the audience to take pity on them as they are able to see how the humanoid villains are able to blend in with society but the ‘freaks’ cannot. Presenting humans, especially Nazis, as the real monsters of the film allows the audience to become sympathetic to the BPRD’s cause and those in it. Complex romantic relationships create sympathy for the ‘freaks’ as we are able to see their emotional pain, and Hellboy’s sentimental feelings for a world that rejects him create an overwhelming sense of pity for him.

Bibliography

Botting, F (2008). Limits of Horror: Technology, Bodies, Gothic. Manchester University Press

Friedman, L and Kavey, A. (2016) Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives. Rutgers University Press

McConeghy, D. (2020) Facing the Monsters: Otherness in H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and Hellboy. Religions, 11 (2), p. 58.

Morrissey, R. (1991) ‘Review of The Surprising Effects of Sympathy: Marivaux, Diderot, Rousseau, and Mary Shelly by James Marshall’. Modern Philology, 88(3), p320-324

Filmography

Hellboy (2004) Directed by Guillermo del Toro [Film] United States. Sony Pictures Releasing

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008) Directed by Guillermo del Toro [Film] United States. Universal Pictures