View source for Hellboy: Blood and Iron

{{short description|2007 second in the Hellboy Animated series directed by Tad Stones Victor Cook}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image              = Hellboy - Blood and Iron Coverart.png
| image_size         =
| image_alt          = 
| caption            = DVD cover
| genre              = 
| creator            = 
| based_on           = {{based_on|[[Hellboy]]||[[Mike Mignola]]}}
| writer             = 
| screenplay         = Kevin Hopps
| story              = Mike Mignola<br />[[Tad Stones]]
| director           = [[Victor Cook]]
| starring           = [[Ron Perlman]]<br />[[Selma Blair]]<br />[[Doug Jones (actor)|Doug Jones]]<br />[[John Hurt]]<br />[[Cree Summer]]<br />[[Peri Gilpin]]<br />[[Kath Soucie]]<br />[[Jim Cummings]]
| narrated           = 
| composer           = [[Christopher Drake]]
| country            = United States<br />
Japan
| language           = English
| num_episodes       = 
| executive_producer = [[Lawrence Gordon (producer)|Lawrence Gordon]]<br />[[Mike Richardson (publisher)|Mike Richardson]]<br />[[Lloyd Levin]]<br />[[Stephen Brown (film producer)|Stephen Brown]]<br />Morris Berger<br />[[John W. Hyde]]
| producer           = Scott D. Greenberg<br />Scott Hemming<br />Sidney Clifton<br />[[Guillermo del Toro]] {{small|(creative)}}<br />[[Mike Mignola]] {{small|(creative)}}
| editor             = Matt Steinauer
| cinematography     = 
| runtime            = 75 minutes
| company            = [[Starz Media]]<br />[[Revolution Studios]]<br />[[Film Roman]]<br />[[Madhouse Studios|Madhouse]]
| budget             = 
| network            = [[Cartoon Network]]
| released           = {{Start date|2007|03|10}}
}}
'''''Hellboy: Blood and Iron''''' is the second film in the [[Hellboy Animated|''Hellboy Animated'' series]] (the first being ''[[Hellboy: Sword of Storms]]''), written by [[Tad Stones]] and [[Mike Mignola]]. It first aired on March 10, 2007 on [[Cartoon Network]], and aired again on July 19, 2008 to promote the release of ''[[Hellboy II: The Golden Army]]'', and was released on [[DVD]] by [[Anchor Bay Entertainment]] on June 12, 2007. The film's storyline is based in part upon the ''[[Hellboy: Wake the Devil]]'' storyline from the original comics.<ref>{{cite news|title= Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron |work= [[IGN]]|url= http://uk.dvd.ign.com/articles/795/795906p1.html|access-date=2010-11-15}}</ref>

The title is a reference to [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s famous "[[Blood and Iron (speech)|Blood and Iron speech]]".

Also included on the DVD is the short film ''Iron Shoes'', which is based on the [[Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others#Iron Shoes|Hellboy story of the same name]]. The Iron Shoes demon is voiced by [[Dan Castellaneta]].

==Plot==
In 1939, shown in a series of flashbacks played in reverse chronological order, Professor [[Trevor Bruttenholm]] investigates a series of murders in Eastern Europe. [[Elizabeth Báthory|Erzsebet Ondrushko]], a vampire who bathed in the blood of innocents to stay young, was responsible. She had sold her soul to the Queen of Witches, the goddess [[Hecate]], and most recently kidnapped the fiancée of one of the townsmen. When the search party, including the local priest, Father Lupescu, confronts Erzsebet in her castle, all members of the party are horribly killed, and Bruttenholm must face the vampire alone. He tricks her into the sunlight, effectively destroying her, but her ashes swirl back into the castle to find sanctuary in her [[iron maiden]].

In the present day, an elderly Bruttenholm, overcome with memories of his encounter with Erzsebet, takes a particular interest in a publicity stunt case in the [[Hamptons]] on [[Long Island]]. A haunting has been reported in a mansion recently purchased by developer Oliver Trumbolt, a friend of a U.S. Senator with hands deep in the [[Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense|BPRD]]'s budget, and considered a low priority. Bruttenholm insists that their most advanced team should go: [[Liz Sherman]], [[Abe Sapien]], [[Hellboy]], and junior agent Sydney Leach as well as himself (to everyone's surprise). Bruttenholm does not explain his motives at first.

The BPRD team arrives at Trumbolt's site and sets up to investigate the haunting. Despite a few open windows, a creepy lifelike replica of Erzsebet, artifacts from her castle, and an old, suspiciously familiar-looking groundskeeper, everything seems normal until night falls and they each encounter strange ghostly apparitions, culminating in dozens of spirits of Erzsebet's former victims. Excited that he may have found a goldmine, Trumbolt ignores the professor's warnings and is attacked.

Using his abilities to detect metal, Leach finds a secret passageway through the house's cellar, inadvertently coming across Trumbolt's body, drained of blood. The blood has been placed in a bathtub, apparently for Erzsebet's revival. Bruttenholm and Liz head for the gardens to stop Hecate and Erzsebet's Harpy-Hags from summoning her back from the dead. The aged groundskeeper, actually Father Lupescu who is in thrall to the vampire, is transformed into a werewolf by the harpies and sent to attack the team. Abe is knocked out and taken by the harpies to be brutally tortured for experimentation while Hellboy fights the werewolf, ultimately killing it.

Liz and Bruttenholm are attacked, first by demonic wolves to delay them from stopping the ritual, then by Erzsebet in a restored but withered body, who knocks Liz out, beats Hellboy through a hole in the courtyard, and takes Bruttenholm back to the mansion. Erzsebet bathes in Trumbolt's blood and rejuvenates herself, but she begins to wither and decay again – Bruttenholm poisoned the blood with Holy Water. He stakes the vampire through the heart, and she turns back to dust. Freed from their torment, the spirits of the house depart in peace, including Father Lupescu.

Meanwhile, under the mansion, Hellboy meets Hecate, who is perplexed as to why he helps the mortals, and tries to lure him to the dark side. He bluntly refuses again and again, battling Hecate's snakes as he tries to re-enter the mansion. Erzsebet's death further enrages Hecate, who possesses the iron maiden, reshapes it into a semblance of her true form, and brutally attacks Hellboy. Abe escapes the harpies, after which they find Hecate fighting Hellboy;  one is killed by Hecate's thrashing tail and the other flies away. Leach, Liz, and Abe attempt to help Hellboy stop the goddess, but are unsuccessful. A badly-wounded Hellboy realizes Hecate's weakness is the sun; he lures her outside, forcing her back into the darkness of her own realm, defeated. The film ends with Bruttenholm, watching over Hellboy's recovery, sitting next to him.

==Cast==
* [[Ron Perlman]] – [[Hellboy]]
* [[Doug Jones (actor)|Doug Jones]] – [[Abe Sapien]]
* [[Selma Blair]] – [[Liz Sherman]]
* [[John Hurt]] – [[Trevor Bruttenholm]]
* [[Rob Paulsen]] – Sydney Leach; Anna's Fiancé
* [[Peri Gilpin]] – Kate Corrigan
* [[Jim Cummings]] – [[Tom Manning (comics)|Tom Manning]]
* [[James Arnold Taylor]] – Father Lupescu; Young Trevor Bruttenholm
* [[J. Grant Albrecht]] – Oliver Trumbolt
* [[Cree Summer]] – [[Hecate]]
* [[Kath Soucie]] – Erzebet Ondrushko
* [[Dee Dee Rescher]] – [[Harpy]]-[[Hag]] #1
* [[Grey DeLisle]] – Harpy-Hag #2; Anna

==Crew==
* [[Ginny McSwain]] – Voice Director

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0817910|title=Hellboy: Blood and Iron}}
* [http://hellboyanimated.typepad.com/ ''Hellboy'' Animated Series Production Diary]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110219011020/http://www.completehellboy.com/ The Hellboy Archive]

{{Guillermo del Toro}}
{{Film Roman}}
{{Dark Horse Comics films}}
{{Hellboy}}

[[Category:2007 television films]]
[[Category:2007 films]]
[[Category:Hellboy films|Blood and Iron]]
[[Category:2007 action films]]
[[Category:2007 fantasy films]]
[[Category:2000s animated superhero films]]
[[Category:American animated fantasy films]]
[[Category:American animated science fiction films]]
[[Category:Animated films about demons]]
[[Category:Films produced by Guillermo del Toro]]
[[Category:2000s American animated films]]
[[Category:Film Roman films]]
[[Category:Revolution Studios films]]
[[Category:Fiction about publicity stunts]]
[[Category:Films directed by Victor Cook]]
[[Category:Superhero horror films]]
[[Category:Animated films set in the 1930s]]
[[Category:Animated films set in the 2000s]]
[[Category:Animated films set in Europe]]
[[Category:Animated films set in New York (state)]]