Top 10 Creepiest Scenes in The Willy Wonka Movies

Good luck sleeping after watching these terrifying scenes! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most nightmare-inducing scenes from the “Willy Wonka” franchise. Our countdown of the creepiest scenes in the "Willy Wonka" films includes Charlie Meets “Slugworth”, Veruca Is Mauled by Squirrels, The Boat Tunnel, and more! #10: Charlie Meets “Slugworth” “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971) Geez, talk about tonal whiplash. Charlie finds his golden ticket and runs home, to the glorious strains of the Oscar-nominated score. This scene inspires a ton of glee and has been endlessly parodied throughout the years. But then Charlie enters some dark and creepy tunnel and encounters who he believes to be Mr. Slugworth. Slugworth offers him money in exchange for Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstopper, and the dude couldn’t be more sketchy. He appears out of nowhere like some horror slasher, talks way too close to the camera, and then places his hands on Charlie’s shoulders. The entire scene is wickedly uncomfortable, and it brings all that golden ticket joy to a screeching halt. #9: The Kids Leave the Factory “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005) “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” omits the scene where the kids leave the factory, with Wonka simply stating that they’ll be alright. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is more faithful to the novel and includes the kids walking out of the factory, but we kind of wish they didn’t. Violet doesn’t seem to have any bones, and she flops around like one of those sticky lizards you get at arcades. Meanwhile, Mike Teavee has been stretched well past the point of normalcy and stands about ten feet tall. Even worse, he’s about as thin as a piece of paper. Please don’t tell us the kids are stuck like this… #8: The Wonkamobile “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971) Willy Wonka has a flair for the dramatic, and he saves the best for late in the game. The Wonkamobile has to be one of the weirdest scenes in the movie, featuring all sorts of surreal inclusions. The sound design is arguably the highlight of this scene, featuring bizarre music, a persistent bubbling noise, and the farting cream shooting out of the pipes. And once again, it paints Wonka himself in a dark and uncaring light, ignoring the screams of children while joyfully singing a song. There’s nothing inherently sinister about the scene, but all these different facets come together to craft an atmosphere of intense weirdness. advertisement #7: Violet’s Transformation “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005) Violet’s transformation in “Willy Wonka” is quite creepy and a classic scene in its own right. But better technology allowed Tim Burton to craft a far scarier iteration for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” For one thing, the violet color spreads across her face like a disease, starting on the tip of her nose before engulfing her whole body. It’s quite disturbing. Violet also inflates to a ridiculous size, her tiny little head perched atop an enormously round body that begins to float. Meanwhile, the building music only adds to the scene’s tension. #6: Wonka’s Meltdown Much of the movie’s scares come from the surreal nature of the factory, but this scene is surprisingly tender and humane. It’s also terrifying for young children. Disappointed in Charlie’s behavior, Wonka falls into a depression and grows irritable at Grandpa Joe. He screams at both Joe and Charlie, his face growing ever more red by the second. It’s a creepy scene not in the weird “Willy Wonka” sense, but because of its realism. With the other kids, Wonka acted in a whimsical and humorously uncaring manner. Here, he’s finally showing some genuine emotion and straight-up yelling at the kid. The Wonka veil is dropped, and it is not how we or Charlie expected the tour to end. #5: Veruca Is Mauled by Squirrels “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005) Spoiled Veruca Salt is shown the squirrel room, in which a large number of squirrels remove the nuts from their shells. Naturally, she wants one, and when Wonka says no, she goes to get one herself. What follows is pure nightmare fuel. The squirrels pounce on Veruca, pin her limbs to the ground, and violently knock on her head. Realizing that she’s a “bad nut,” they drag her into a giant chute in the floor and send her away to be incinerated. Meanwhile, Wonka couldn’t care less about the squirrel attack or Veruca’s potentially fatal fate. What is this movie!? #4: Augustus Gloop Goes Up the Pipe “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971) The first kid to be taken off the tour is Augustus Gloop, who is sucked up a pipe after falling into the chocolate river. And what a horrifying, terrifying ordeal it is. This is a shocking scene, coming out of nowhere and promising an undercurrent of darkness to the tour. Furthermore, viewers may be surprised at Wonka’s blasé attitude, as he doesn’t seem to care about this kid who is actively drowning in the river. In fact, he seems way more concerned about the chocolate than he does the kid! That image of Augustus getting stuck in the pipe triggers all sorts of fears, intense claustrophobia amongst them, and it’s one that sticks with you long after the movie is over. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005) The start of the tour is depicted very differently in both films. The original is far more playful, with Wonka doing a cute flip and toying with the audience. Yeah, it shows his penchant for troll-ish behavior, but it’s all in good fun. Enter Tim Burton, who Tim Burtons the whole thing with a wickedly creepy song and dance number. The kids are treated to some singing ventriloquist dummies, all of which proceed to burn and melt when the pyrotechnics go off. The slowed-down song, the melting plastic, and worst of all, the eyeball popping out of the head - it’s all grotesque and not very fun at all. #2: The Fizzy Lifting Scene “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971) The original 1971 film takes a number of deviations from the novel, including the Fizzy Lifting Drink sequence. A scene unique to the film, it shows Grandpa Joe and Charlie consuming the drinks and floating towards the ceiling, where they are nearly sliced to ribbons by a fan. Like the Slugworth scene, this is a major case of tonal whiplash. The scene begins innocently enough, and is even quite fun as Joe and Charlie float around and do flips. But then things take a horrifying and ominous turn as they slowly ascend towards the fan. The scene is rife with tension, and while we know that Charlie will not be killed, it is nevertheless extremely nerve-racking. #1: The Boat Tunnel “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971) Of course number one is the boat tunnel. How could it not be the boat tunnel!? This scene has gone down in the annals of movie history and has scarred millions of kids around the world. In fact, it was even included in Bravo’s list for the The 100 Scariest Movie Moments, being placed at #74. With the strobing color lights, creepy visuals, chilling sound design, and Wonka’s deranged behavior, this scene has become wildly infamous. It’s basically a dare for children; watch it without closing your eyes or turning away and you are one tough cookie! We don’t know what compelled the filmmakers to include this scene, but they traumatized us all in doing so. Did any of these scenes give you nightmares as a kid? Let us know in the comments below!