Terrified me as a child, enchanting me still. The making of is excellent as well. Maybe better than the actual movie even. I also happen to do an excellent impression of a skeksis.
It's an amazing film. My brother and I watched it countless times growing up. You ever hear the song Return to Oz by the Scissor Sisters? It compares the look of those with HIV to skeksis. -provocative image.
BlackBird, I won't spoil it, but will instead describe it in terms of atmosphere. It is one of those movies that absolutely melts your real world surroundings completely away. It's evocative and thematically dark, which is a compelling contrast to the medium (puppets). I think of it as a kind of precursor to an outfit like Pixar, which makes movies that work brilliantly for two audiences: at once: 1)the children they are obviously targeting, and 2) their parents, which they entertain with adult humor that goes over the kids heads (yet doesn't detract from the kids enjoyment). Except in the Dark Crystal, the two audiences are not seperated really and he isn't trying to make you laugh. It's dark and wonderful.