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Saturday, October 27, 2012

HMM '12 Day 27: Labyrinth

It's October! That means two very important things: Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts are here, and Halloween is near! My favorite thing to do in October to prepare myself for Halloween is to, of course, watch movies that I feel best exemplify the season. Now, this doesn't just mean extreme gore fests (of course, I do love me some gore), but I like to include movies that have that Halloween feel. Anyway, let's get to Day 27 of Halloween Movie Madness 2012!

Labyrinth
(Tri Star Pictures, 1986)


Labyrinth Movie Poster

Even though Labyrinth isn't like any of the other movies in HMM, I kind of felt an obligation to put this movie on the list.  There were two reasons for this.  One is that Halloween is more than just blood and gore.  It's also about goblins and other such fantasy creatures.  The other reason this is on the list is because I wanted to have another movie that my son could watch with me.  There are only a few movies on my list that he can with me, and that's only because he can't really watch scary and/or gory movies.  So, being that I haven't seen this movie in a while and I do actually like it, I decided to indulge him.

Anyhow, this movie is pretty much Muppets on Crack.  After all, it was directed by Jim Henson.  There are some very interesting creatures in this movie: everything from the basic goblins to talking rock faces in the walls, to the Helping Hands.  I won't lie, when I was a little kid and I saw this for the first time, it freaked me out a bit.  The Helping Hands freaked me out the most.  And the junk lady.

Labyrinth Helping Hands

The movie starts out with Sarah (played by Jennifer Connelly), who just happens to be a whiny little runt who decides that she doesn't want to have to babysit her little brother.  She decides to tell him a story about the Goblin King (David Bowie) taking children.  She ends up saying the correct lines, and the goblins actually come and take the baby.  Sarah then has to navigate through the Goblin King's labyrinth.  Once inside, she meets all kinds of strange creatures, including the ones previously mentioned.

The Labyrinth from Labyrinth

I'm not going to really get into too much detail because a lot of people have already seen this movie.  And of course, I don't want to spoil the fun for those of you who have not.

I can still remember the first time I saw this movie when I was a kid.  I was eight ears old, and we went to see it in the theater with the day care I had to go to after school.  I remember getting a kick out of the first time Sarah meets Hoggle and he's just standing there taking a piss.  And the big dumb hairy guy she befriends who can summon rocks with his roar.  That was pretty cool too.  And it is still pretty cool.  I also recently learned that Kevin Clash (a.k.a. Elmo) worked on this movie.  He was one of the Fireys.

Hoggle Pissing in Labyrinth

And then there is the soundtrack.  David Bowie wrote and performed a bunch of songs in this movie.  In fact, judging from some of the comments I have seen around the net about this movie, it seems like a good deal of people only like this movie so much because they have a hard-on for him.  If I have a hard-on for anyone in this movie, it's Jennifer Connelly, and not because of her performance in this movie.... it is because of her "performance" in a certain scene in Requiem for a Dream (and I know you know what I am talking about).

Labyrinth Goblins

I was going to post some fanfic or something, but most of what I found while I was looking for some for todayt's post is pretty... disturbing.