Hellboy (2004)

Hellboy is director Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Mike Mignola's monster-smashing monster hero.

The title character (played by Ron Perlman) is discovered by a group of Allies lead by scientist Trevor Bruttenholm as they disrupt a demonic summoning lead by Nazi Occultists in 1944. Flash forward to present day, Bruttenholm (John Hurt) now leads the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.), of which Hellboy is the lead agent. He's aided by the amphibian man Abe Sapien (Duncan Jones, voiced by David Hyde Pierce) and firestarter Liz Sherman (Selma Blair).

The team unravels a plot by the resurrected Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden), the same mystic who summoned Hellboy in the first place, to usher in the era of the Lovecraftian demo-god, Ogdru Jahad.

The movie was written by del Toro from a story by Peter Briggs and del Toro. It spawned one sequel and a pair of animated films.