9 Children's Movies That Are Way Creepier Than You Remember

4. The Dark Crystal

The Dark Crystal was a Jim Henson production, and is the result of the famous puppeteer wanting to make some felt creations that were a little more...adult. (By "adult," we can only surmise Mr. Henson meant "deranged personifications of eternal torment that skew toward the 7-to-13 demographic.") Anyone hoping for the typical nuttiness of a Jim Henson production would be sorely disappointed when 1982's The Dark Crystal hit theaters.

Though Labyrinth may have toyed with the darker side of things a few years later, Henson really sunk his teeth into the grimmest aspects of life with his puppets on this initial go-round. The animatronics used to create those vulture-like creatures called Skeksis have hopefully been burned and buried somewhere that only Henson knew the coordinates to. Because sweet Jesus, those things were the exact definition of hair-raising.

The plot is a little too close to The Lord of the Rings (elf must travel a great distance with part of a very powerful crystal to "destroy" the evil uses for it), but most people were too busy clawing their eyes out after watching the Skeksis Emperor's face crumble in on itself after she died.