10 Deceptively Innocent Movies With Incredibly Dark Moments

Based on Roald Dahl's classic novel of the same name, 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of the most beloved family films of all time. For anybody unfamiliar with this fantastical and whimsical tale, the notion that a movie about a renowned candy maker would feature a litany of macabre instances would be hard to fathom.

However, it doesn't take long for the darkness to rear its head once the golden ticket winners enter the chocolate factory, as all of the children bar Charlie are duly punished in accordance with their character flaws. While these exaggerated punishments have their share of comic relief, the real-life notions of an obese boy being waterboarded through chocolate-filled plumbing or a young girl being thrown down a garbage chute are unsettling, to say the least.

These punishments also serve to reinforce the alarming notion that Willy Wonka is a narcissistic psychopath, and they're not the only indicators. The chocolatier merrily places the competition winners in danger throughout the film, responds to most questions as though they were personal attacks on his character, and wears gaudy clothes to place himself at the forefront of everybody's attention at all times.

Factor in some downright terrifying cautionary tunes from the endlessly creepy Oompa Loompas, and a psychedelic boat ride that wouldn't feel out of place after imbibing a litre of psilocybin-laced ayahuasca, and Mel Stuart's film takes on a troubling new aura.