Paramount PicturesRoald Dahl’s beloved children’s story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may be far darker than any of us realised, according to a sinister new fan theory.
The theory goes that the world famous chocolatier, Willy Wonka, is not the kind, benevolent man he appears to be but in fact is a vile child murderer who plans on luring kids to his factory to do away with them.
While it sounds pretty silly at first, the people over at WhatCulture have some pretty compelling evidence to support their dark theory.
They explain that Wonka, angry at the constant betrayal of his employees leaking his magical recipes to competitors – and turned mad by his years of self-imposed isolation – decided to exact a horrible revenge.
Far from the series of unfortunate events that befell the ‘naughty children’ being accidents, some fans believe they were in fact Saw-like traps designed to punish them for their sins.
That explains why Willy’s so apathetic when the children are endangered and explains why the Oompa Loompas had such wonderfully choreographed and rehearsed song and dance numbers for each of the children.
But what about Charlie?
Oh no... He fell in. Well, the theory goes that he was recruited to become Willy’s apprentice and carry on his dark deeds after Willy had left for the great chocolate river in the sky.
But of course all this is nonsense right? Well yes and no. Willy being a deranged serial killer would certainly explain why he couldn’t give less of a shit about all the kids going missing in his factory and that awful scene from the 1971 film.
It’s also hinted at in the 2005 version of the film that Wonka expected some of the children to end up in trouble, with Charlie constantly asking how the Oompa Loompa’s dances are so well put together.
At the same time though, in the novel Willy does mention at the end that the kids who went missing will be ‘recovered’ which makes it sound like they’re not dead.
Plus the story is probably creepy enough already – and that’s without getting into the whole Oompa Loompa’s are a racist caricature thing.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.