An ode to 80’s Dark Fantasy

From The Dark Crystal to Conan, the 80's were a magnificent time for fantasy. Here's why...

“Another world. Another time. In the age of wonder.” So begins the narrator (voiced by Joseph O’Connor) at the beginning of the 1982 classic The Dark Crystal. The film tells the tale of two Gelfling and their quest to restore the famed Dark Crystal thus preventing the evil Skeksis from gaining total dominion over the world of Thra. The Dark Crystal exemplifies the sheer scale of imagination on display across the breadth of 80’s Dark Fantasy - a sub-genre that also produced the likes of Labyrinth (also from Henson), Conan the Barbarian, Legend and Willow.

These were often epic tales with fantastical worlds full of rich folklore, prophecy and myth. Wonderful celebrations of all that human minds and hands can create, of the worlds they can imagine. The Dark Crystal, directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, has the rare distinction of being a live action film that never features a live action human actor. Instead, every character is a puppet portrayed by a plethora of incredibly talented puppeteers.

From Podlings to Gelflings, these characters were created wholesale for the film and they exist as monuments to human creativity, performance and storytelling. That you get to the films climax and you’re fully invested in the story of these heroic Gelfling to the point that you’re on the edge of your seat with tears in your eyes as they suffer is a testament to the power of the world-building and storytelling on display.

And that’s what makes this particular genre moment so powerful. In their mini-series on 80’s Dark Fantasy, the podcast The Eye of the Duck described the genre as, “The audacious, barbaric, and sometimes ill-fated sword and sorcery films that draw from legends as old as language itself.”

These movies may not have been critical or commercial successes in their time but they sure were ambitious and overflowing with creativity. They each created unique worlds and characters that seemed in conversation with each other as though, together, they were each building a section of the same wonderful and varied tapestry.

What characterises this movement? There ere are dragons and elves and magic and castles but beyond those trappings of the fantasy genre this particular artistic branch brought a unique vibe. A darkness beneath the skin, simmering and sinister and mysterious. They’re not afraid to scare you. People die - sometimes horribly. Kids are whisked away from their homes to strange worlds (see Return to Oz) or stolen by evil kings with sinister intentions (see Labyrinth).

They’re also undeniably camp and pulpy. In fact, many of heroes of Dark Fantasy can be found in pulp paperbacks and the pages of science fiction and fantasy magazines. The likes of Conan with his oiled up abs and huge sword or Tom Cruise squaring off against the devil, as played by Tim Curry, while wearing a very short skirt are all wonderfully and completely camp. The acting and the storytelling stakes are dialed up to eleven in service of this heightened sense of scope and scale. These worlds are epic and the stories they contain are suitably epic to match.

Creatively, Hollywood has seen many golden ages. Each of these eras brought its own unique structures and characters and tones. Each of these eras produced masterpieces. Whether it’s The Godfather in the 70’s or Casablanca in the 40’s, each era has had its own story to tell.

All of this is to say that 80’s Dark Fantasy, and the films it produced, is one such wondrous era of cinematic artistic expression that deserves appraisal. One that is inspiring and entertaining and full of imagination. Epic quests that plumb the depths of human emotion like a conductor leading an orchestra. I encourage all to explore these wonderful worlds and the treasures they hold. For now, as the narrator concludes at the outset of The Dark Crystal, “a journey must begin.”

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