TOM OGG on Labyrinth, which will be showing at Cineworld Jersey in early January

ISLANDERS of all ages will be able to enjoy one of the most entertaining, eccentric and flat-out quotable family-friendly films of the 1980s next month when Labyrinth (1986) returns to the big-screen.
Showing at Cineworld Jersey from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 January, Labyrinth is directed by muppet maestro Jim Henson (The Muppet Movie, The Dark Crystal) and written by the late, great Terry Jones of Monty Python’s Flying Circus fame.
The film tells the story of Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly), a daydreaming teenager who lives to regret wishing her baby half-brother, Toby, would be taken away by goblins. Why? Because Jareth, the Goblin King (David Bowie), hears her wish and promptly makes it come true. The only way Sarah can then rescue her stolen sibling is by retrieving him from the Goblin King’s castle. Unfortunately for her, the castle resides in the centre of a magical, logic-free labyrinth and so young Sarah must navigate her way through its multiple riddles, puzzles and booby traps.
Along the way, she encounters all kinds of fantastical creatures, among them the bad-tempered but kind-hearted Hoggle, a gung-ho fox terrier named Sir Didymus and a pair of argumentative door knockers, in addition to visiting such memorable locations as the Python-esque Bog of Eternal Stench (if you fall into it, you stink forever) and a nightmarish junk yard. The scene in which Sarah visits the latter is genuinely disquieting, as is the moment in which the goblins first kidnap Toby. The kidnap scene – with its eerie music box-like soundtrack and puppets appearing and disappearing in dark corners of the house – feels almost like a scene from a children’s version of Hellraiser. But don’t let that put you off, parents. Too many adults these days forget that children like to be scared by films and TV shows.
As the baby-stealing, mullet-haired, tights-wearing Goblin King, David Bowie is clearly having the time of his life, not least in the scenes he shares with Henson’s lively puppets. There are some actors who become hopelessly self-conscious when faced with non-human co-stars, but Bowie has the exact opposite problem. In fact, it’s one of the few films in which he ever appeared in which his performance isn’t distractingly wooden.
The erstwhile Thin White Duke also contributed several new songs for the film’s soundtrack, including the catchy but bonkers Magic Dance (“You remind me of the babe/The babe with the power of voodoo”), the bombastic As the World Falls Down and the funky Chilly Down. It’s very far from his finest work, but even mid-’80s semi-coasting Bowie was a musical force to be reckoned with.
Surprisingly, Labyrinth was a commercial and critical flop on release, but it has since enjoyed considerable reappraisal by critics, and it remains particularly adored by film fans of a certain vintage.
Is the film currently available for free on Amazon Prime? It is, yes. But take it from someone who, over the last few months, has watched Jaws, The Shining, Home Alone and It’s a Wonderful Life at Cineworld Jersey, it is a whole different experience watching these classic films on the big-screen. No matter how big your widescreen TV is, nothing beats seeing them at the cinema, especially when the auditorium is packed full of fellow fans, as has been the case every time I have been to watch a re-released classic.

*For more details, visit cineworld.co.uk