Time has taught us that the the present time is not always the best time for certain ideas. There are too many cases to count where a story, film, or other piece of media just wasn’t as understood or recognized as it should have been at a given point. A perfect example of this is Jim Henson‘s dark fantasy creation, “The Dark Crystal.“ With its use of Henson’s signature puppetry and animatronics his do-directed project with Frank Oz was a marvel that did alright for itself at the box office, but not nearly as much as it deserved. Thanks to Fathom Entertainment though, you can get another shot at seeing it on the big screen.
Fathom Events bring a lot of films back to participating theaters for limited run. For example, they did it with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” They also did it with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles“ (1990), and it did incredibly well. Speaking as someone who saw it over its initial rerelease weekend, it was nostalgic but also freshly amazing to see the film in the way it was meant to be. Fittingly enough, that film also featured puppetry and animatronics from Jim Henson, which brings us back to “The Dark Crystal.”
Henson was never afraid to play things down for an audience. He was as much an entertainer for adults as for children and it shows with the dark fantasy in “The Dark Crystal.” The world of Thra is not a happy place as the Skeksis and Mystics vie for either control or survival respectively in the dawning of The Great Conjunction. The world building is phenomenal, which is why the franchise has lived on in books, comics, and a criminally short-lived Netflix prequel series. And one thing that can easily be said about the work Henson and his studio did is that their work holds up incredibly well over time.
“The Dark Crystal” returns this October on the 12th and 13th. Check here for participating theaters, and grab yourself some tickets. There are really no films quite like “The Dark Crystal,” and you won’t want to miss it if you can help it.
