Bowiefest presents: Labyrinth

Perhaps David Bowie's most famous role, not least due to his infamous codpiece, Labyrinth is a fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and featuring a cast played by puppets from his Creature Shop. It revolves around the quest of teenage Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) who has to reach the centre of an enormous otherworldly maze to rescue her infant brother Toby, kidnapped by Bowie's Jareth, the Goblin King.

George Lucas produced and Henson directed this gothic fantasy which pits living and breathing actors Connelly and Bowie (who, along with Trevor Jones, provides the film's music) against a motley collection of Muppet monsters.

Sarah lives in a fantasy world of myth and magic, evil spells, and wondrous enchantment. She is babysitting her little brother when she wishes that goblins would take him away. She gets her wish, and a coterie of goblins abduct him.

She then encounters Jareth (David Bowie), the ruler of a mystical world one step removed from reality. He tells Sarah that the only way to get her brother back is to find her way through a M.C. Escher-like labyrinth and find the castle at the centre. As she makes her way through the maze, she faces a number of horrific challenges (like The Bog of Eternal Stench) before she finds her way to the gravity-defying castle, where her brother is being held by the evil goblins.

Labyrinth, dir. Jim Henson, UK/USA 1986, 101 mins