Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory | Image: Paramount Pictures
Some films truly have their own subcultures spring up around them, particularly beloved classics in which fans have many years to let their collective imaginations fly regarding what the films are "really about."
Take Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, for instance. Unsurprisingly due to its dark themes, theories abound as to its subversive nature. One popular theory maintains that Wonka knew in advance or planned that visiting children would disappear, only to face varied forms of violent remanufacture as sweets.
Feeding the theory is the fact that available seats on the modes of transportation for the visitor tours shrink down as people disappear. The two seats vacated by Augustus Gloop and his mother after their unfortunate departure are no longer shown. Instead, the boat is built specifically to hold four children and their guardians. Later, the remaining kids (now down to two, plus guardians) board another vehicle. Again, it has only as many seats as there are Wonka victims left.
Unlike Roald Dahl’s book, the film is unclear whether the children live, leaving open the possibility that Wonka is simply a sweet-peddling, kiddie serial killer.
Read more wild theories associated with nine other presentations, including The Big Lebowski, Groundhog Day, Doctor Who and Blade Runner here.