The Nostalgia effect

Something strange seems to happen when you watch a movie you haven't seen since you were a kid because time distorts memories and sometimes you realize you were holding on to an idea of a film rather than remembering it as it was. You know when you watch something like the birds now and you admire how they build the tension with music but mostly you can't get over how terrible the special effects are when you compare them to what we can achieve digitally in more recent years. I remember watching that while I was young, too young to be watching hitchcock, and being totally freaked out by it. Even now I am wary upon seeing groups of birds gathered in one spot, as though they might be up to something.

It's the nostalgia effect. Sometimes the things you thought were amazing as a kid are seen a little differently through your weary adult eyes. This is my third time at cult classics cinema. An offering in the theatre royal of classic movies or at least movies the general voting public have deemed classics. Much to my delight and my boyfriends disgust, the next one to win is Dirty dancing but I can't imagine I'd be able to trick him into attending. This week, however, we went to see Labyrinth. I will admit I wasn't overly enthused about it as a movie but I couldn't really back out because I'd already committed to going. I had watched it once as a kid and all I could really remember about it is that David Bowie gave me the creeps and has done ever since. So honestly I didn't think the movie would have very much to offer me.

I will say this, it wasn't the movie I remembered. It's been so long since I saw it that the movie looks dated and I actually can't believe David Bowie scared me because his character was hilariously camp, not one bit menacing and just made me think of the Flight of the conchordes doing their impression of him. If you haven't seen it , they are a New Zealand born folk comedy duo and they do a great song about Bowie in Space. Theres a link to the youtube video if you want to check it out. They do a fantastic impression of his accent. http://youtu.be/g8f_XCH3zmM. I did actually enjoy the movie but can't imagine it being scary unless you were a young child. My nieces probably wouldn't enjoy it but they do still find some disney movies a bit too scary. The whole thing was actually quite mad and I can only imagine that whoever put the concept together was a little high while doing so. I enjoyed how they developed the other characters in the labyrinth and there were quite a few laugh out loud moments but I did wonder what exactly was going on during some of the musical numbers.

As always the cult classics cinema was a bit different from a night out in the Odeon cinema. Several people turned up in costume. I have no idea how people manage to make these sort of costumes because I would not know where to start but even as I sat there in my very boring jumper and jeans, I couldn't help but admire the effort others had put into it. Even the host, Denis, was dressed as Bowie's character, the Goblin king but gathering by the sheer number of Bowie wigs in the audience, that wig must have been a little easier to come by. 
There were bubbles floating about at one point and party poppers at the end and lots of cheering from the crowd which all made for a more interesting cinema experience. 
And then to finish the night , the winner for the next cult classics night was announced to collective cheers and groans of audience members. All depending on how they felt about Dirty Dancing. Personally and I know  I could be shot for saying this but I actually prefer dirty dancing 2, a more recent movie, I might still have to go for nostalgias sake.