How many family films can you think of that contain the following images: an extreme eye close-up, a spider’s maw, a chicken being decapitated, a lizard eating a bug, and a worm crawling across a face? To my knowledge, there’s only one example: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971). You’d be excused for thinking the above description sounds like something you would see in a horror film, because it absolutely is.
We know Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has a bit of a sinister side – as most of his stories do. If are unfamiliar with the story, a reclusive chocolate factory owner invites five children and their guardians to his factory in order to pass his business onto one of them. Whilst on a tour of the factory, where Wonka is surprisingly quite open about his unethical workplace practices, the chocolatier picks them off one by one. To be fair, all of the children (except for Charlie) are horrible.
Mel Stuart’s 1971 film employs a lot of horror techniques. Take for instance the scene where the visitors are required to sign the contract – which happens to state in large capital letters that Wonka is not responsible for any loss of life or limb that may happen inside. After they sign, they all rush into a tiny room where they are squished together and scrambling between the walls. Then the door opens into a corridor whereby one would expect some space after all that clambering – only, it’s actually an Ames room and once you get to the end, you are squashed once again!
This scene starts the tour off with a bang; you’re trapped, and you can’t get out. It’s the classic hallmark of a haunted house, claustrophobic and unsettling. I spoke before about Wonka picking the children off one by one. It is no surprise then, that every mode of transport that appears has less seating available each time. Despite ten people entering the Chocolate Room (the grassy meadow where everything is edible), the boat to get to the next part of the factory, the Wonkatania, has eight passenger seats. Augustus Gloop escapes drowning and instead is siphoned up clear pipe – so we can see his horrified screams as well as hear them. Wonka has predetermined the disappearances – we are now following the premise of a slasher.
Of course, the Wonkatania travels through the aptly named Fear Tunnel. Side note, in the low lighting, the chocolate river definitely resembles blood. In the novel, everybody heads into a dark tunnel on the boat where Wonka recites his poetry before the lights come back on. In the film, the boat travels faster and faster through a dark tunnel with bright lights flashing intermittently. Then we are presented with a montage of scary images. First a thick, black worm slithers across a human face, possibly a corpse? (In actuality, it’s Walon Green). Mrs. Teavee is shouting she’s going to be sick, and then a chicken is decapitated with a cleaver. Excuse me, what? How was that approved for this film? Briefly Mr. Slugworth pops up, offering a moment of respite before the screaming intensifies and a lizard is chomping on a live bug. Around this point, Wonka begins singing/reciting his poetry which contains such lines as ‘Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grizzly reaper mowing?‘ Wonka begins maniacally screaming his poetry at this point, whilst a fanged spider’s mouth opens and closes.
Stuart referred to this backdrop as his “montage of evil”, and although there are only five (clear) images, they are used to great effect. Part of this efficiency is due to the fact that the scene is just so disorienting, it’s impossible to tell which way the boat is moving, and how much space there is in that tunnel. It feels endless and like the ceiling is closing in at the same time. There are many theories that break down what these images represent, analogies that refer to Dante’s Inferno, Freudian analyses that believe the tunnel subdues the Id. To me, it seems like Wonka really enjoys the boat ride and is quite excited about it, although he must know his visitors are finding it quite upsetting as his poem keeps bringing up danger. Wilder portrays Wonka here as both emotionless and possessed, whilst bright strobe lights pass over his features. Talking of being possessed, the film now takes a step in the direction of body horror, where we will discuss the fates of the other children.
Due to Violet Beauregarde’s lack of manners, it’s time for her to go. She can’t keep her paws off the delectable three-course piece of gum that tastes of tomato soup, roast beef with baked potato, and blueberry pie, and as a result swells up like a blueberry. Having just seen all the horrors of the tunnel, we can surely be excused for expecting her to literally explode on screen and spray her innards everywhere? The Oompa Loompa’s politely extract her blueberry juice off screen but imagine what you will about what that process entails – or should I say, entrails? On to Veruca Salt, the spoiled bad egg, who in the book is sent down a rubbish chute and leaves the factory covered in garbage. In this film though, she is sent down a chute and Wonka tells the gang the furnace only lights every other day, so she has a chance. Moving onto the Television Chocolate Room, Mike Teavee runs into the WonkaVision machine whilst Wonka quietly mumbles, “stop, don’t, come back”, just before Mike is scrambled into tiny pieces above their heads and then gets shrunk. He is then unfortunately over stretched by the Oompa Loompas. Again, what is this process exactly? With only Charlie and his grandpa left, they come very close to getting decapitated but luckily are able to burp enough in order to escape this fate.
There’s lots to learn from Mel Stuart’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Mostly how to petrify young viewers, but it also demonstrates time and time again an absolute masterclass of techniques, effects, and Wilder’s performances in and of themselves are incredibly memorable.
Screen Waffle 