So, uh, what was going on with that nightmarish Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow?

An “oompa loompa,” allegedly.
Credit: @agneponx on X

Do you like Willy Wonka?

Turns out, that doesn’t matter if you attended a Willy Wonka-themed event in Glasgow. It was so bad, so horrifying, so deeply troubling, that parents actually called the cops.

The event was billed as this over-the-top immersive experience thrown by the House of Illuminati (lol), but all of the images that showed what folks could expect were made with AI, and all of the scripts the actors received were written by AI and were so confusing that they made no sense at all. The reality of the experience was worse than any horror film could dare to create.

When the guests showed up, they stepped into an empty warehouse with some of the most devastating and terrifying features. It was sparsely decorated with props that didn’t all even make sense — like a single, sad bouncy castle — and there was little to no chocolate, and it cost nearly $40 per person. The oompa loompas looked deeply unhappy and the entire event left children and adults alike afraid.

There was even some character that is not in Willy Wonka and is very scary — he was allegedly a made up a villain called The Unknown who, according to Culture Crave, is “an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls.”

Guests. of course, got their money back as children cried, and the House of Illuminati (again, lol) apologized. But will the refund be enough to pay for what I’m sure amounts to decades of therapy? Unclear. Here are some of our favorite moments, documented for all eternity online.

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Christianna Silva is a Senior Culture Reporter at Mashable. They write about tech and digital culture, with a focus on Facebook and Instagram. Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow them on Twitter @christianna_j.

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