It wasn't the happiest of times at home for young Mike (Mathew Mackay) what with his mother away attending to his grandfather's affairs, and his sister Suzie (Alison Darcy) getting on his nerves, but his father Billy (Michael Hogan) was as supportive as he could be, though even he was more wrapped up in his work as an artist. However, it was about to get a whole lot more complicated for Mike when his best friend Connie (Siluck Saysanasy) arrived one morning before school and he told him there had been a fire at the old spooky house last night - should they investigate?
Of course not, as anyone who has seen a vintage public information film would tell you clambering around derelict buildings is a recipe for trouble, but with The Peanut Butter Solution there was more to generating a memorable movie than this. For some reason, although it looks fairly innocuous to adult eyes - allowing for the fact it was pretty strange for a children's movie - for kids watching this way back when it was the source of nighhtmares way out of proportion to the actual plot and scenes in the movie itself. There are those who think that it might have been a particularly traumatic dream they once had, but nope, this was a real movie and its legacy is as one of those "what the hell was that?" questions.
Well, this was what it was, and though truly freaky kids flicks are more celebrated from the likes of Mexico or the Far East, it was a Canadian production, one in a series of features unrelated by plot, but related by aiming for parents' pockets. That country has created its fair share of chilly horror movies, but when you think of children's entertainment from there it's the socially improving likes of Degrassi Junior High and its variations which sprang to mind, not some hellish scenario where a kid can be tormented in the way he is here. What happens to Mike when he visits the spooky house with Connie is that he climbs inside and witnesses something so terrifying that he is sent reeling from the premises, falling unconscious. Once back home, he is afraid, amnesiac but otherwise unharmed.
And then all his hair falls out, which understandably messes with his mind further, so he doesn't want to return to school. One non-peanut butter solution is a wig, but that gets ripped off on the football field much to Mike's humiliation, leaving only one way to get around his problem: the solution of the title. Adding to the fantastical nature of the story, he is visited by a couple of ghosts of the homeless who were killed in the fire, one of whom he had given spare change to in an act of charity, so to return the favour his companion offers a potion made with easily found items to rub on the boy's bald pate. The result is that the hair grows back, but at such a rate that he begins to look like Cousin Itt from The Addams Famly.
In an aside typical of the odd misjudgements of director Michael Rubbo, a documentarian branching out into fiction, Connie also applies the potion - to make himself grow pubic hair (what?!) which ends up sticking out of his trousers there's so much of it. Throw in a crazed art teacher named Signor (Michel Maillot) who kidnaps Mike to harvest his crowning glory for paintbrushes with the help of his child slaves he insists call him "Daddy" and the scene was set for a film which appeared as if it were concocted by having a brainstorming session, then generously accepted every idea they had no matter how bizarre or inappropriate it might have been. One big paintbrush manufactured from the ever advancing hair is for no good reason magical, and creates paintings which you can climb inside, and it's perhaps this semblance of logic which doesn't hold up when you analyse it that caused it to disturb so many, staying in their minds thanks to its awkwardness when you tried to process it. Plainly shot, but very odd. Music by Lewis Furey.
