Into the Dark Woods

A child stolen by goblins. A girl terrorised by wheel-footed henchmen. Skeletal bird-reptiles who suck the life essence from those they enslave. While all generations are brought up on fairy tales of one kind or another, dark fantasy wove a particularly potent enchantment over the Anglo-American cultural imagination in the 1980s. Sumptuously costumed films like The Dark Crystal (1982), The Company of Wolves (1984), Legend (1985) and Labyrinth (1986) were created by the likes of Jim Henson, Angela Carter, Neil Jordan and Ridley Scott, while David Bowie’s glittering turn as Labyrinth’s Goblin King was echoed in the British music world by Kate Bush’s frequent dives into the dressing-up box of folklore in songs like “Waking the Witch” and the Rackham-style cover art of her 1980 album Never for Ever. Hair was Pre-Raphaelite, make-up was harlequin, and clothes were velvet, leather and lace as the glam rockers of the ’70s morphed into the New Romantics of London and Manchester’s club scene. What was it about the 1980s that made dark fairy tales such a driving cultural force for children and adults alike?