Several of the newspaper articles in the scrapbook show her mother pictured with another actor, topped by a headline about their on-again-off-again romance. SarahвЂ™s mother Linda Williams is a theatre actor whoвЂ™s famous enough for her love life to be written about in the papers. She isnвЂ™t, as we can see from recent photos around SarahвЂ™s mirror and the scrapbook of press clippings Sarah keeps about her, decorated with hearts, the word вЂњmomвЂќ.

If LabyrinthВ were a вЂrealвЂ™ fairy tale, then SarahвЂ™s absent mother (the girl lives with her father, stepmother and new stepbrother) would be dead. The film starts with her dressed as a princess and play-acting, and ends with her literally clearing her room of toys and games, and symbolically passing on her beloved teddy bear Lancelot to her little brother Toby. ItвЂ™s a coming-of-age fantasy that teaches Sarah to leave her childhood behind, recognise her inner power and step into the adult world. Using the childhood dolls, stories and ornaments spotted around her bedroom in the early scenes (Hoggle and Ludo toys, a Goblin King statue, a wooden labyrinth game, storybooks from Snow White to AliceвЂ™s Adventures in WonderlandвЂ¦), Sarah invents a scenario in which sheвЂ™s a put-upon fairy tale hero who saves her baby brother.

The events of LabyrinthВ are a fantasy that takes place in SarahвЂ™s mind. Their dynamic is wrong in every size and colour, and вЂ“ depending on whether youвЂ™ve spotted the other character Bowie plays in the film вЂ“ could be about to get a little bitВ moreВ wrong. Jareth spies on Sarah, comes into her bedroom, drugs her, dances with her, and promises to be her slave if sheвЂ™ll love him, fear him and do as he says. JarethвЂ™s a 300-year-old Goblin King (played by a 38-year-old pop star) who wants to live within 15-year-old Sarah. Like BowieвЂ™s codpiece, it stares you in the face all the way through the film. ItвЂ™s not as if nobody noticed the vibe between lead characters Sarah and Jareth at the time, or in repeated viewings since. The simple fact of knowing that something is unhealthy doesnвЂ™t stop it from being fun, which is to say that itвЂ™s still okay to love Jim HensonвЂ™s 1986 cult kidsвЂ™ film LabyrinthВ while acknowledging that its sexual subtext is creepier than a drunk uncle on a camping trip. A chocolate-filled doughnut, for instance, can be delicious even while it crams our arteries with trans fat.

Labyrinth 2 cast