Trailers from Hell: Candyman director recalls working on The Dark Crystal

Bernard Rose is well known to horror fans as the director of Candyman, his 1992 Clive Barker adaptation about a hook-wielding ghost (Tony Todd) who can be summoned into a very physical form if you say his name five times. But the British filmmaker began his big screen career assisting Jim Henson on the beloved Muppets creator’s 1982 fantasy epic The Dark Crystal.

“Everybody, once in their career, has the ability to do whatever the hell they want, and this was Jim’s moment,” says Rose talking about the film for Joe Dante’s film website, Trailers From Hell. “He’d done The Muppet Show, which was a huge hit, he’d done The Muppet Movie, which was a huge hit, he promised them another Muppet movie, I think The [Great] Muppet Caper, and then he was like, ‘If I do all this work, you’ll let me make Dark Crystal for as much money as I want to spend.’ And he did. And he really went to extremes.”

You can hear Rose talk more about The Dark Crystal in the Trailers From Hell video, above.

Related Articles