Hellboy II: The Golden Army is Guillermo del Toro’s second turn as writer and director behind this comic book adaptation about a demon fighting to defend humanity. Those in the film all seem to agree, his encore performance is astonishing.

“It’s Guillermo del Toro visiting the most extreme depths of his imagination,” explains Ron Perlman, who plays the titular hero, “[his] remarkable, fertile, twisted imagination.”

Says Del Toro, “I have always loved movies where the star is the monster.  That has branded my view of art and storytelling all my life.”

From the moment he introduces a stop-motion battle sequence, it’s clear that Del Toro has tried to make Hellboy II something unique and incredible. With impeccable CGI, extremely high-quality prosthetics and clearly creative production design, he’s created some stunning visuals, including a gun-battle finale with ambitions to rival anything before in the genre.

“The less I conform, the more I love the movies [I make]” del Toro explains, adding that he works to “shoot from a sense of awe as opposed to a place of knowledge and certainty.”

Luke Goss, who plays the villain Prince Nuada in The Golden Army and previously worked with del Toro on Blade II, thinks part of the director’s magic is his faith in his own scripts.

 He says, “Unlike any other filmmaker, even in your wildest imagination, you know you’ll see what’s on the page, times a million, on screen. And it’s a very exciting feeling.”

Selma Blair, returning to her role as Liz Sherman, was also elated to be back with del Toro.

“There’s no comparison to Guillermo,” she says. “He creates a world unlike anything the audience has ever seen.”

Her admiration for Perlman is equally hearty, as she thinks that “he loves acting more than anyone I’ve ever met.”

And Perlman has to be deeply infatuated with his job, because the technical process of morphing him back into his character was a tremendous undertaking. Perlman’s entire face was covered, along with much of his neck, arms and torso, in a procedure that typically required about three hours in the makeup chair.

Yet he still couldn’t wait to get back into the boots of his favorite role, a character he describes as “deliciously robust to play…a complete underachieving, lazy slob…a beer-drinking, football-watching average American guy who has no desire to be a superhero.”

Or, as del Toro puts it, “only a hero in the moments he needs to be.”

“He just happens to have these abilities commensurate with where he’s from and who he is,” says Perlman. “His idea of a perfect day is pizza and beer and watching Marx Brothers movies.  His extraordinary superhuman traits are coincidental and not something he aspires to.”

Hellboy’s desire and penchant for the ordinary also makes him relatable, something del Toro feels allows the audience to glom on to the film and it’s protagonists.

“I like these characters to be humanly relatable. I’ve always wanted to know who fills up the Batmobile, who patches Spiderman’s suit,” he says.

“It is my sincerest hope that you find resonance in the movies I make. I would love for people to find within Hellboy movies their favorite monsters. We all need monsters to dream.”