There's a fine, long tradition of scaring children straight through fiction, and I think Wonka tapped into that.
I mean, in my case, it didn't work, but it's always possible that I'd have been an even more terrible child if I didn't have the image of Gene Wilder looming over my nightmares.
(To be clear, I still love that movie and pretty much everything Wilder ever did, especially his comedies with Mel Brooks.)
Now, one of my best friends told me she was similarly traumatized by E.T. as a child, even though it didn't even come close to the inherent darkness of Wonka. So I could be entirely wrong, as usual.
C==|==============> the pun is mightier than the sword
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