Warning: SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are ahead!
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is, without a doubt, one of the spookiest movies in the MCU. It’s loaded with grotesque imagery, jump scares and one ghoulish-looking Marvel hero, and while those moments certainly resonated with me, none did quite so much as one scene that I doubt anyone intended to be scary at all. I’m referring to the scene with Wanda’s children, in which they sing the most bizarre and unsettling song about ice cream I’ve heard in my life.
Billy and Tommy genuinely seem like sweet boys who love their mother, but Doctor Strange 2 briefly fooled me on that front when they whipped that wild song out of their back pocket. For those who can’t remember the lyrics specifically, here they are to jog your memory:
We like ice cream like every child should. We promise to be good.
It doesn’t really hit the same without the falsetto of actors Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne, but I digress. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced, nor will I ever experience, a stranger and creepier moment in the MCU. And yet, I’m here on my soapbox and not seeing a lot of others on the internet who share that opinion. For that reason, I want to dive into that specific Doctor Strange 2 moment to make it clear to anyone who might think otherwise that this is, without a doubt, one of the weirdest parts of the sequel.
Typically When Kids Show Up In Scary Movies, It’s Bad News
I can respect the argument that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t a traditional horror movie, but it is the scariest Marvel movie with a lot of frights packed into it. It also has Sam Raimi directing, so when kids start singing in high-pitched voices on the screen, I’m going to be worried. It’s hard for me to think of a time where it’s a good thing when kids show up in horror movies, and I can think of a dozen times it was terrible.
Also, let me point out that many iconic horror movies featured children singing; Nightmare on Elm Street, The Poltergeist, The Ring, and Children of the Corn all come to mind. Typically, kids singing is a joyous thing, but when there’s the slightest bit of tension in the air, it can really make for an unsettling scene.
Given all that, I can’t imagine why Doctor Strange 2 decided to make the tender moment between Wanda and her children a scene where they sing about wanting ice cream. Couldn’t they have just begged her for ice cream or maybe encouraged her to watch that old cartoon they had on in the background? Why did so much about a seemingly normal Wanda in the multiverse feel so strange? Honestly, it might’ve felt completely normal until those first few notes were uttered.
I’m a father have a daughter younger than Wanda Maximoff’s boys. I know that kids sing, and I could probably recall at least three times this week alone my daughter belted out a song she made up off the top of her head. I get this is a thing that kids do, but at the same time, I don’t think my daughter has ever sounded creepier than the boys did in that scene. It has some weird energy to it, and I think that’s largely because of the overall dark tone of the movie.
There Was Something So Unsettling About The Whole Scene
I also think that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did the singing scene no favors with how uncomfortable it was overall. First off, we’re viewing the scene through the lens of the Wanda who's without her children, so there’s a voyeuristic quality to all of it.
Additionally, it doesn’t seem like the alternate Wanda is living her best life, and maybe that’s by design. The house is dimly lit, and the boys are watching some old cartoon that gives off some old-school television vibes similar to the early days of WandaVision. It’s so unlike what I’d expect from a modern family that I nearly suspected there was some twist I wasn’t picking up on, but as we know, the scene really didn’t mean anything.
We do see Wanda and the boys in this multiverse, but it’s somewhat left up to interpretation where the boys’ father is. Is the father Vision, and if so, where is he at in this universe? If not, what’s going on in Wanda’s life at this point, and why does it seem like she’s kind of stressed when we see her? It just feels like there’s a lot unexplained about this Wanda though, and with only so much time to tell the main story, I can forgive that.
What I can’t forgive is that the singing gave such a weird and upsetting vibe that it completely pulled me out of the movie and had me wondering throughout the rest of the thrilling adventure if it was somehow going to come back into play. Alas, towards the end, I just accepted it was nothing more than a ridiculously weird moment originally intended to be some warm and touching scene between Wanda and her sons. Unfortunately, my mind can’t allow me to see the scene that way, and I fear it will forever haunt me any time I see the movie in the future. Truthfully, if I have to live with that for the rest of my days, I’m at least spreading the word to others on the internet so that they do can feel my pain or at least relate to how we might’ve seen the weirdest scene in MCU history and no one is talking about it. Perhaps, in time, that will change.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently in theaters and sets the stage for a lot of upcoming Marvel movies. Singing aside, I think this is one most Marvel fans shouldn’t miss and may even want to watch again once they get over those brutal hero deaths.
