Willy Wonka: A Lost Childhood
One of my favorite films growing up was 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It was such a whimsical, happy film with so many memorable songs I could now sing by heart. It's still a classic, but it pains me to tell about how this film gave me nightmares years after first discovering the film.
My parents were holding a garage sale, so I decided to help them promote it with posters in the suburb. When I looked at what my parents were selling, I found something that brought me back to nostalgia: my old VHS copy of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I asked my mother why she would want to sell this, but she thought I had outgrown children's films. She said I could have it if I wanted it.
After the garage sale ended, I went back to my apartment and put the video tape in. Everything in the film was just as I remembered it. All the colors, all the songs, all the lines. It was as if I was seven years old again.
Then came the tunnel scene.
You all remember this scene. It's when everyone gets on Willy Wonka's boat after Augustus Gloop goes up the pipe. They go into a demonic tunnel where there are images of spiders, eyeballs, even chickens getting their heads chopped off. Then Wonka starts chanting a strange and creepy poem until he ends by screaming at the top of his lungs. The strangest thing is that this scene is never spoken of again after it ends.
The thing is, I never found it that scary as a kid. It was creepy, but it wasn't until I grew up that scene became a little scarier. It's like my feelings towards Lavender Town: wasn't scary when I encountered it, but it became scary when I discovered the Internet.
Anyway, the scene came on, it creeped me out, the scene ends...
...and the tape stops.
It didn't make sense, because it was the tape I had as a kid. There are far more scenes after the tunnel scene, and I should know this because the tape functioned perfectly when I was seven! I took out the tape to find a lot more of a tape remained to be seen. I decided to put the tape back in in its current state.
The tunnel scene then replayed.
To make things more confusing, after it replayed, the tape ended again. I decided to call my buddy Jonathan, who works in the field of technology repair. He came over to examine the tape. After waiting a while, he said that the only weird thing was that the space in the film where the tunnel scene is about to begin was colored white. He said it was probably because of how old my VCR is.
Jonathan then asked, "Can I watch the film with you?"
Jonathan used to watch the film with me when we were kids. Because I bothered him with this, I rewound the tape so we could watch the film from the start.
And the tunnel scene played first. But then things went from annoying and creepy to horrifying. When Slugworth appeared on-screen, his head was missing. After Mrs. Teevee says, "Now I am going to be sick," she threw up. When Wonka recites his poem, the pitch changed up and down, before settling on what sounded like G major. His face twisted demonically, until it showed the boat crashing and exploding. Blood dripped on what I assumed was the lens of the camera. Then the movie stopped, but the tape didn't end.
After a minute, a mesage appeared saying, "You're Welcome. - Your Worst Nightmare, darb." Upon seeing this, I turned the VCR off.
The Next Day
I couldn't sleep that night; I just stayed up the whole night watching late night talk-shows and YouTube videos. When I needed to get ready for work, I quickly got dressed and went out the door. I got on the regular bus I take to work. When we entered a tunnel, I heard a faint whisper:
"There's no earthly way of knowing...
which direction they are going...
There's no knowing where they're rowing...Or which way the river's flowing...
Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing.
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grisly Reaper mowing?
Yes!
The danger must be growing, cause the rowers keep on rowing...
...and they're CERTAINLY NOT SHOWING...
ANY SIGNS THAT THEY ARE SLOWING!
At this, I screamed in an almost unearthly voice.
After work, I dropped off the tape at my parent's house, My father was curious about why I was returning the tape. He persuaded me to watch the tape with them. It worked perfectly in their VCR.
Credited to Cannonfodder64
| Comments • 0 |
Loading comments...
|
