Children at a Willy Wonka-inspired event were captured shrieking in fear at a character playing an “evil chocolate-maker that lived in the walls of the factory”.

In a video shared online, the youngsters were recorded wailing “no” when an actor dressed in a black cape and silver face mask came out from behind a mirror.

Glasgow mum Maryanne McCormack, who took the video, told Sky News her daughter retreated and hid in her jacket.

She added: “Some of the other kids were upset. It was just very odd because I couldn’t figure out the relevance.”

Jack Proctor, from Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire, said his family “survived the legend that was Willy’s Chocolate Experience”.

Also sharing pictures and videos of the experience in Glasgow, Mr Proctor said the chocolate river was a “strip of brown carpet” and described one of the stations as an “Oompa Loompa meth lab”.

Speaking of the creepy-looking character, Mr Proctor told Sky News: “Our kids, like every kid in the place, were terrified of it.

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“It was supposedly an evil chocolate-maker that lived in the walls of the factory. Out of context it was weird, but nothing in there made sense, so it fit in well.”

Willy’s Chocolate Experience was brought to a halt on Saturday as parents demanded their money back amid complaints the event was not what was advertised and left some children in tears.

The £35-a-ticket experience at Box Hub was sold as a “chocolate fantasy like never before” where “dreams become reality”.

Instead, families were met with a near-empty venue decorated with a handful of Wonka-themed props and a small bouncy castle.

Parents also told of how their children only received a couple of sweets and a quarter of a can of limeade.

Mr Proctor said: “A random staff member, not Wonka, opened the gate for us and it was even worse than anticipated.

“We were directed through a partitioned walkway with some randomly placed oversized props, a demonic character whose sole purpose was to terrify the children, and a meth lab-like candy station that had test tubes with some sweets in them.

“Two Oompa Loompas were handing out candy from these tubes. Each kid got a jellybean and a half-cup of Morrison’s Limeade.

“We passed through the partitioned area in about three minutes to discover that we had experienced the entirety of Willy’s Chocolate Experience.

“The remainder of the venue was just tables for sitting at and a small unmanned bouncy castle in the corner.

“We left the event within 15 minutes after entering as security were starting to turn people away saying the event was cancelled.”

Organiser House of Illuminati pulled the plug on the weekend event midway through its first day and promised full refunds.

Michael Archibald, 18, who played one of the Willy Wonkas, earlier told Sky News that he was “incredibly embarrassed” at the state of the event and described it as “where dreams went to die”.

Motherwell mum Janine Yardley also told of her disappointment, especially for her son, Elliot, who had dressed up as an Oompa Loompa for the occasion.

Ms Yardley said the schoolboy was “really angry” as he “didn’t even get a bit of chocolate – not even a Freddo”.

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House of Illuminati apologised via a Facebook post and promised full refunds, which has since been deleted.

It said it had planned a “fabulous” event but “it just did not take shape”.

A spokesperson said: “Unfortunately last minute we were let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue on and push through and now realise we probably should have cancelled first thing this morning instead.”

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