Dominic Corry: The best and worst maze movies

Actor Dylan O'Brien stars in The Maze Runner.

The Maze Runner hit theatres this week and Dominic Corry is getting lost in his love of movie mazes. He runs through the best and worst.

I've had many obsessions throughout my life, most obviously the one we discuss in this space - movies. But before movies, before comic books, before British comic books, there were mazes.

Mazes were my original obsession. From a very young age, the very concept of mazes wholly captivated me. As I'm sure they do many children.

Anyway, it is my fond memories of that childhood obsession that allowed me to move beyond my cynicism about YA adaptations and get a little bit excited about the latest example - The Maze Runner, which opened this week in New Zealand cinemas.

The entrance to the maze in the movie The Maze Runner. Photo / AP

The film didn't change my life, but I had a lot of fun watching it, and it was definitely better than every other YA adaptation of the last few years, which is a pretty minor achievement, but still. Plus the titular maze is pretty darn cool.

This naturally got me thinking about other movies that prominently feature a maze in some significant way, so here I'm going to cite some of the best (and worst) examples.

Labyrinth (1986)

Undoutedly cinema's most iconic maze (at least it is for anyone who attended a children's birthday party between 1986 and 1991), the titular (did I mention 'titular' is my favourite word?) labyrinth provides the setting for 98% of the movie. For all the cutie-pie aspects spread throughout the film, the actual labyrinth is uniquely menacing. Jim Henson and his collaborators provided numerous inventive spins on long-standing maze tropes (hidden passageways, doors opened by riddles, gallant dogs), even working M.C. Escher into the equation.

Cool maze? Heck yes! The part where the path goes on forever in both directions is amazing and haunting. Plus I still fear the bog of eternal stench.

The Shining (1981)

A scene from The Shining.

Stanley Kubrick made the definitive cinematic statement on the quiet meance of hedge mazes with his iconic Stephen King adaptation. The film's legendary, dread-soaked finalé occurs at night in the maze, as young Danny is pursued by his crazy pop amongst hedges rendered white by snow. It's an amazing sequence, but my favourite bit of the film involving the maze is the part where Jack looks down upon a table top model of the maze, and the camera slowly zooms in to reveal Wendy and Danny in the middle. Featuring an utterly flawless matte painting, the sequence is enduringly creepy.

Cool maze? So cool, it froze Jack Torrance. Plus it provides a practical lesson in how to evade someone who is following you via your footprints.

Cube (1997)

This Canadian cult hit is one of the great "wake up somewhere strange with no memory" stories of all time. I thought about it a lot while watching The Maze Runner, which also features shifting maze elements, and the threat of being squashed by two encroaching walls. I'm convinced James Dashner was partially inspired by Cube when he wrote the 2009 book that The Maze Runner is based on. Far too few films have picked up the gauntlet that Vincenzo Natali's symmetrical mind-bender threw down more than fifteen years ago, its own cruddy sequels included. I was stoked to see its influence in The Maze Runner.

Cool maze? It's more of a giant...cube. But behaves very much like a maze. And a super cool, super deadly maze at that. One of cinema's most elegant mazes really. They should reboot this franchise.

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

Courtney Solomon's justly-derided would-be epic film version of the iconic fantasy role-playing game has many faults: the dragons are crummy, the tone is way off, the acting is terrible (including that from a never-more-embarrassed Jeremy Irons), and that one dude wearing blue lipstick looks beyond ridiculous. But it's most grevious crime against humanity is the insultingly awful "maze" that our hero, Ridley (Justin Whalin) must navigate about halfway through the film. Said maze basically consists of four rooms in a row, each with some hurdle Ridley must overcome. Not only are there no intersections in this maze, Ridley's entire journey through it is observed from above by an audience only a couple of feet away. At no point could he possibly ever actually get lost. Which I think is a fundamental aspect of anything calling itself a maze.

If any existing intellectual property had an onus to serve up a cool maze in a film adaptation, it was Dungeons & Dragons. Hopefully whoever ends up in charge after this mess is sorted out is a little more maze-friendly.

Incidentally, looking the film up again for this blog entry has revealed a partial explanation for filmdom's worst ever maze that I was previously unaware of: Richard O'Brien (yes that one) who plays Xilus, the guy who sends Ridley into the maze, used to host a '90s British game show called The Crystal Maze. It appears that the entire scene in the film was an elaborate homage to this show. Weird. I think I hate it even more now.

Cool maze? Zero charisma.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

A scene from Pan's Labyrinth.

As wonderful as Guillermo Del Toro's film is, it way its fantasy elements play on a more metaphorical plane undermines its power as a classic 'maze' story, especially for a film with the word 'labyrinth' in the title. I'm not complaining. Or saying that David Bowie should've shown up or anything. The film just didn't speak to the maze-lover in me the way I thought it would.

Cool maze? At the end of the day, yes, because it enhances the film around it greatly. But I feel like Del Toro still has a great cinematic maze in him.

Wrath of the Titans (2012)

This forgettable sequel to the forgettable remake of the unforgetable 1981 Ray Harryhausen film features a maze scene that evokes the board game Upwords with its shifting verticalities. It's a minor bright spot in a very boring film. It's amazing that throughout all the Harryhausen films, he never featured a maze. Unless I'm forgetting one...?

Cool maze? A bit I guess. Feels a little too easy to navigate.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

A scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Many elements of the Harry Potter saga are influenced by a classic British fantasy storytelling tradition, and the magical maze from the tournament-focused Goblet of Fire felt especially Labyrinth-esque. Which made me like it.

Cool maze? Yeah.

Your Highness (2011)

Like The Shining, this lewd James Franco/Danny McBride film also culminates with a maze scene. In this film, the maze seems to comprise about three sets, and there's no proper sense of geography to it. I'm probably expecting too much of a scene that culminates with Minotaur's member swinging around McBride's neck.

Cool maze? Nah.

Agree? Disagree? Favourite maze movies? Cube reboot? Comment below!