It was the longest line we’ve ever seen at the Paramount Theatre, snaking in both directions down Congress, then east on Seventh and Eighth streets all the way to San Jacinto and beyond. Estimates put the crowd at well over the theatre’s 1,300-seat capacity, but for those lucky enough to get in, the unofficial world premiere of Guillermo del Toro‘s (center) Hellboy was cooler than Hades and more fun than a barrel full of red monkeys. Post-screening, Hellboy comic creator Mike Mignola (left), star Ron Perlman (right), and del Toro held forth on the wages of sin, Rick Baker‘s spot-on Hellboy make-up creations, and why even gun-toting, stogie-chomping demonimaniacs need love, too: “This movie is about a simple truth,” del Toro said. “We like people for their virtues, but we love them for their defects. This is the Beauty and the Beast where they kiss and she turns into a beast instead of the other way around. I think that fairy tales can be really fucking Republican or not, and this is not.”
This article appears in March 19 • 2004.