Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: Overview

Creepy Kids’ Movie #1: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:
Overview

In this movie, famous, reclusive chocolate-maker (and possibly madman), Willy Wonka, sends out a limited number of golden tickets in their chocolate “Wonka” bars in order to invite children to tour his factory with one adult chaperone. The “survivor” of this tour would supposedly win a lifetime supply of chocolate and as the movie goes along the children one-by-one become caught in some sort of horrifying accident until only one remains.

Now the 21^st century version (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) showed all the kids again at the end, physically changed by the incidents, but basically ok. While in the original, and far better, movie (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Facotry), each child became involved in an accident and then is never seen again! The only reassurances are some comments by Wonka about how each particular child “might be ok.” It’s as if a child is caught in a factory explosion and then the foreman just shrugs his shoulders and has a song sung to him about the incident. Now that’s creepy!

Of course by the end of both movies, Charlie Bucket wins the keys to the factory by managing to not get diced up in a ceiling’s propeller blades. Sounds like fun for the whole family, right?

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Creepy Kids’ Movies

Was it a cruel joke… or did the film makers just not realize? Everyone has seen at least one of them: So-called kids movies or “family” movies with something that really stuck with you, something that warped your childhood, something that told you that the movie you are watching just might not turn out ok… and even if it did, it left you feeling… disturbed.

So, I am going to be posting some family films with at least one disturbing scene that leaves and lasting impact. (I’m not going to limit this to a “Top 10” list or anything, because I hope to continue to add to it as other movies come to mind.)

Creepy Kids’ Movies is going to be an ongoing compilation of film titles that tend to be thought of as “kids movies,” or “family films,” but that have elements in them that tend to be scary, unsettling, disturbing, dark and… well… creepy. These “creepy” elements may have been intentional by the filmmakers or completely accidental, as if they didn’t realize how unsettling a moment would be to kids. As much as those scenes may have disturbed me as a kid… I also loved them! I hope others do too.

Welcome!

The Internet has a growing trend of people bad-mouthing things… especially movies. Everyone wants to be the first to say that something “sucks” and if enough Internet postings saying a movie is bad, readers begin to believe a movie is bad. (For example, the growing trend of hating the Star Wars movies… including the original movie trilogy.) I’m not saying people don’t have a right to dislike a movie, but there are just too many negative reviews out there. So, this blog was created in order to address movies that aren’t as bad as people remember, or that were not given the credit that they deserve, or that people haven’t seen in awhile and should see again.

After working in the editorial field for a number of years, I’ve had an increasing desire to writing something I’m more interested in. So, I’ve created this blog to express many of my thoughts and feelings about the movies I’ve seen in the past or have recently seen.

So, I hope whoever reads this finds some enjoyment out of it… or at least finds something that interests them.

Welcome!… and please enjoy!