The tunnel scene from 1971’s Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory terrified an entire generation of children – here’s all the creepy imagery that flashes during the sequence. Not only is the late Gene Wilder iconic as Willy Wonka, but he also starred in other classic comedies like Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Young Frankenstein. He co-starred with the great Richard Pryor in a number of comedies too, including Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, See No Evil, Hear No Evil and 1991’s Another You.

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory was adapted from the 1964 novel by Roald Dahl, who also wrote The Witches and Matilda. The movie follows Charlie, a young boy who receives a Golden Ticket to visit the titular factory and meet the somewhat eccentric owner. While it received a positive response Dahl was famously unhappy with the final product due to its deviations from his book and disowned it. The movie soon became a classic and was remade in 2005, with director Tim Burton adding his signature gothic flair. A Willy Wonka prequel is currently in the works with actors like Ezra Miller and Ryan Gosling rumored for the title role, while Ready Player One is heavily inspired by its structure.

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Its something of a tradition in classic kids movies to have at least one unexpectedly traumatic sequence, such as the horse drowning in The NeverEnding Story. Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory may just have the best of all, thanks to the infamous tunnel scene. Clocking in at a mere two minutes, this sequence finds the tour going through a dark tunnel where things get very psychedelic. Wonka recites a creepy poem while unsettling images flash on the walls and the tour group becomes gradually more terrified. Here’s a quick breakdown of the imagery that appears during the scene.

A flying cockroach

A millipede crawling over a human face

An extreme close-up of an eye

A chicken being decapitated

A image of Wonka’s revival Arthur Slugworth

A lizard eating a bug

A close-up of a scorpion’s mouth

These images only flash briefly, so they’re tricky to make out during initial viewing. They add to the unsettling effect of Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory’s tunnel sequence, as does Gene Wilder’s gently raising mania as he recites the poem. The other actors in the scene weren’t informed Wilder would be delivering the poem in that manner, leading to their genuine responses during the scene.

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The Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory tunnel is still considered one of the creepiest scenes in a children’s movie, and it not hard to see why. While the imagery that appears is hardly on the same level as the flashes of Hell from Event Horizon, it still has a very unsettling effect.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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