Celebrating the fantastic creatures in 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army'

This summer marks the 15th anniversary of Guillermo del Toro's sequel to Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army. While both films have their major charms in adapting Mike Mignola's legendary comic books, there are plenty of great arguments that The Golden Army excels because of the incredible creatures that inhabit every nook and cranny of the movie. 

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Essentially framed as a fairy tale story about the origins of the separation of human from magical creatures, del Toro went to town tasking creature builders Spectral Motion and makeup designers Filmefex with bringing a whole host of creatures to life with glorious, practical realism. With Hellboy II: The Golden Army closing out its streaming run on Peacock this month, SYFY WIRE revisited some of the most spectacular creations that really need to be seen to be believed.

Tooth Fairies

Del Toro and company pretty much ruined ever thinking of the Tooth Fairy as a sweet, generous fairy who lovingly exchanges money under the pillow for baby teeth. In The Golden Army, Tooth Fairies are vicious tooth-shaped critters that feed on bones and teeth. As the above clip supports, they also aren't loners. Feeding in swarms they are terrifying monsters of destruction, and kinda make us want to never smile again.

The Forest God

Just add water for destruction! Who knew a tiny green seed could cause so much trouble? The Last Elemental / Forest God is unleashed upon the world by Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) to wipe out a lot of humans. When it erupts from under the pavement, yes, it's chaos. But once fully grown, it's also pretty beautiful too. And it makes for one heck of a sparring partner for Helllboy (Ron Perlman). 

Mr. Wink - The Cave Troll

Essentially Prince Nuada's muscle, the Cave Troll meets up with Hellboy in the secret Troll Market and it does not go well. However, in terms of design, Mr. Wink is a marvel of full body prosthetic makeup. Created to work in a fight scene, Mr. Wink gives the whole sequence a sense of scale, weight and realism that's tough to achieve with full CGI creatures. 

Johann Kraus

Voiced by Seth MacFarlane, Johann is a German psychic that survived a séance gone bad but now has to exist inside a wetsuit and helmet to survive. He looks like a steampunk deep sea diver with moving mandibles for speaking. A bizarre creation from the mind of Mignola, he was brought to life as an entirely practical suit. 

The Angel of Death

If you thought the Doug Jones' Pale Man in del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth was scary, the duo said, "Hold my beer!" and concocted The Angel of Death. A terrifying creature that is the personification of Hellboy's personal death, it features a skeletal face with eyes on its wings for maximum creepiness. As portrayed by Jones, the creature moves with a glorious theatricality that is gothic and commanding. Truly, it's a masterful creation that demands you look at it, even when that's really the last thing you'd ever want to do. 

The Golden Army

A clockwork army of soldiers created to decimate humans, they're controlled by anyone of royal blood with a golden crown. They repair themselves during battle, which makes them almost impossible to destroy. One of the VFX creations for the film -- they are so detailed with their metallic parts and blue and red glowing internal mechanisms -- there was no way to make them practically. Again, they are masterfully designed and look like creatures that could have walked out of Return to Oz. 

Watch Hellboy 2: The Golden Army before it disappears from Peacock the end of April.