Willy Wonka Connects to The Cabin in the Woods? Okay

Fans love to create theories and stretch as much as they can for a connection at times, and it’s fun simply because it does manage to draw parallels between one story and another that might have never been seen before. This time around we get to look at Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and The Cabin in The Woods. From a first glance, it’s not tough to see why they would be compared to each other since both stories are designed to bring in a certain number of characters to face a set of challenges that they know nothing about. It’s obvious that they’re not the same movie, that Willy Wonka isn’t some twisted individual that’s going to sacrifice children, but it’s still fun to take a look at the similarities and make it known that there is a chance that in some parallel universe that Wonka would have operated a different branch of the same organization that was determined to serve the Ancient Ones. If such a thing had been the case then Wonka would have been the most deceptive front of all.

Just imagine a candy maker having a dark side that would allow him to lead kids to the bowels of some imaginable hell by luring them in with the promise of treats. That would be the type of horror movie a lot of people might watch since it’s insanely devious, not to mention that it’s genius. The funny thing about this is that each movie does have its set characters and the type of storyline that makes certain that each character plays their assigned role. while The Cabin in the Woods selected each victim by a less than savory method that set things up the way they needed to be, Willy Wonka was more of a test to gauge the character of each individual, not necessarily by their special skills or traits, but more by the way they behaved. 

Just imagine that all five kids had been decent and unassuming individuals, that would have changed the story in a big way, right? But much as it happened with The Cabin in The Woods, that wasn’t about to happen since it wouldn’t have followed the desired formula, and people love to see controversy and drama, but they don’t always care to see the triumph of the group, as the struggle of one or two individuals to reach the end draws in a bigger crowd. The fact that people in these respective worlds are okay with this kind of thing is disturbing, but there are reasons within each movie since it happens that people are ready and willing to see Wonka’s factory open up again to provide jobs and a service to the nearby town. In The Cabin in The Woods, the people running the project are trying to save the world, albeit through very questionable and morally reprehensible methods. But both movies are providing a service to humanity, and both are doing so in ways that people don’t fully understand since to do it openly would ruin the entire effect. The secrecy behind each operation is the point after all, and the truth is that Wonka is probably a little more effective since the people that remain don’t worry too much about those that have dropped off along the way. 

The dire consequences that were thought possible in Willy Wonka were made into a horror story a while back by an expert team of creators that managed to showcase how each child was killed in a gruesome and violent manner, and it was kind of interesting to watch really since it was something that many people had been wanting to see at that point, and it felt like a more fitting punishment since many people are of the mind that each one of the kids were kind of asking for consequences with their ill behavior. In the Cabin movie, the campers weren’t exactly asking for it, but they were duped rather easily into doing what the people behind the scenes wanted them to thanks to everything from minor pitfalls to pheromones that could be released from the vents of the cabin at any given time. When the game is rigged, it’s easier to win. 

Each movie had their own unique challenges, but where Wonka’s were open and remained the obvious choice of each child, the Cabin was a little more discrete in allowing the victims to choose the instruments of their destruction. It was an unwitting choice, and they didn’t even realize they were making a choice, but it was all carefully set in motion to create the balanced sacrifices that needed to happen. At the end of the day, both stories could have worked toward the same purpose had that been the intention at one point in time. But their similarities are still fun to take note of when comparing the two.