Guillermo Del Toro, the visionary director who brought movie-goers such underrated gems as Pan’s Labyrinth and the inventive Blade 2 and Hellboy films, is bringing back his favorite comic book icon to the big screen this weekend.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army picks up the story where the first film left off, with the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) continuing to wage its war against the evil things waiting to go bump in the night.

In this film, the things that are doing the bumping present a much bigger and potentially earth-shattering threat to the world.

That threat comes in the form of a once forgotten legend that describes an ancient war between the humans and mythical creatures that was once waged on this plane of existence. The legend states that, in a truce between the warring groups, a crown was created that would give whomever wears it control over an invincible clockwork army. That army is the Golden Army.

In the present day, evil elf Prince Nuada, an otherworldy malcontent, seeks to resurrect the legend and begins his search for the crown’s three pieces. He leads the mythical world that exists just beyond the periphery of humanity’s senses in a rebellion against the humans in his quest to rule the Earth and wipe man from the face of the planet, and give it back to whom he thinks are the rightful owners. And if he is successful in piecing together the crown, it will awaken his new Golden Army and make him unstoppable.

As the dark creatures prepare for an all out attack on humanity, the only one who can stop them is the tough talking and sarcastic good guy hellspawn, Hellboy.

Hellboy, accompanied by his pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman, wise merman Abe Sapien and newly appointed BPRD member Johann Krauss (a disembodied ectoplasmic spirit with psychic abilities who can only exist in a containment suit that prevents his body from dissipating) join forces to take on Nuada and his ever-growing roster of maniacal mythical monsters and supervillains.

Ron Perlman returns as the sardonic title hero Hellboy, as do Selma Blair as Liz Sherman and Doug Jones as Abe Sapien. Newcomers to the burgeoning Hellboy franchise include Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, as the voice of Johann Krauss and Luke Goss as the evil elf Nuada.

Del Toro brings his fantastic, signature artistic style to the film that fans of his past work are sure to enjoy. The characters, creatures and the incredible world merely hinted at in the original Hellboy will be seen in their full glory and terror when Hellboy 2: The Golden Army opens on Friday.