What it’s about: Child of the Forest Jack (Cruise) takes his sweetheart, Princess Lili (Sara), to see the unicorns, embodiments of the world’s light and magic. But an impulsive Lili touches the animals, forbidden for mortals, and allows the forces of the Lord of Darkness (Curry) a chance to assassinate one of them, tipping the world onto the verge of eternal night. Separated in the ensuing chaos, the two young lovers must right the situation: him with the help of the mischievous Gump (Bennent) and his band of faeries, and her by resisting the temptations of Darkness.

Reflections: Of the big ’80s fantasy films, this is one of the dreamiest and weirdest. The director’s cut–which adds 24 minutes–moves at a languid pace, the characters are mostly flat archetypes, several important plot mechanics basically boil down to “it’s magic, it’s fine”–this is a movie that operates on vibes more than logic. But the director’s two previous films were Alien and Blade Runner–Ridley Scott can nail a vibe. Everything is suffused with an opulent and increasingly gothic design, storms of petals or clouds of bubbles dance around in the frame, there is glitter all over the place. The dialog veers from weirdly stilted (“Kill her! Forget her! Think of the unicorn!”) to bumbling-sidekick shtick (“Aye, tis no sight for a sober man.”) and nothing is ever really explained, but the texture of the whole thing is easy to get lost in.

More than that, though, I remember seeing this movie around middle-school age and there was something hypnotic about it. Watching it again as an adult, there is a thick undertone of coming-of-age sexuality to the whole thing that I think registered subconsciously–it feels like a fever dream, but it is doing something. There is also a lot of campy humor to it–just the way the goblin Blix (Playten) delivers a “Wow.” to an overreaction from the supreme evil is funnier than most of the actual “jokes.” But no one is working harder to sell this thing than Tim Curry (RIP, sir). Setting aside the wild design of his character, his performance is magnetically weird, over the top in exactly the right way, and he ends up carrying the whole film (just look at the box art).

I’m not surprised this flopped, which it did. It’s a really eccentric turn and still not really like anything else Scott has made. It doesn’t exactly make a lot of sense, but film–art in general–is not a totally intellectual experience. This feels more like it’s trying to tap into something more mythical–serving up sumptuous images and pulling together a mishmash of things from folklore and the collective unconscious. I kind of love this movie for that, but it also got me at the right age and it’s one I’d recommend cautiously; one’s mileage may vary depending on one’s patience for its oddball nonsense.