The Peanut Butter Solution
Certainly one of the more unusual kids films of the 1980's, if not of all time. This is the one many people struggle to remember and describe like "What was that one about the kid whose hair grows long... and then all these kids get kindnapped, and cut off his hair..?" If that's your memory of it, you were on the right track. Even though this film was a French-Canadian production that was only released to video in the rest of the world, somehow as a kid, I came to watch it along with many other Aussie kids who always remember how wierd it was, but also wierdly fascinating.
‘The Peanut butter Solution’ is one of those rare 80’s movies of my childhood that will always stay with me. Not because it is a good film. But because it was so strange...
The story centres on young Michael, who lives with his dad and sister when we meet him, while his mum is off on holiday for the duration of the film. Michael is your regular kid; he plays soccer, hangs out with his buddy from school and believes in ghosts. In the town where they live, stands a derelict old house, and all the kids believe it's haunted. Dared to walk in there one day by his friends, Michael does. We watch him walk up the rubble and enter the dark, creepy house. We don’t see inside, all we hear is Michael scream. Following this, he tumbles down the pile of rubble and has passed out. This was the part of the movie which scared and fascinated me as a kid, and still does to this day. What did Michael see? Some of the best monsters and horror creations of film were scary because you didn’t always see them; parts of them were revealed slowly and strategically, building up to their grand unveiling later in the film, i.e. Jaws. This film plays on that idea – it’s what you don’t see that scares you.
As a result of being frightened so severely, Michael starts to lose his hair. His father provides a wig for him and Michael tries to continue on as normal. At a soccer game one afternoon, a player from the other team pulls his wig off and Michael is chased home by all the kids. Another disturbing and scary scene, that taps into that childhood fear of being exposed and picked on by countless other kids, with no grownups there to help you. Michael makes it home safely and locks himself away from the world.
A couple of nights later, Michael is lying in bed when he hears some noises downstairs and like any kid would, goes and investigates. He comes across an old couple snooping around his kitchen. They see Michael and introduce themselves. They’re ghosts and have come to help Michael, coming from the haunted house he entered and got a fright from. Wanting to make it up to Michael for scaring him, the old couple tell Michael about the Peanut Butter Solution; a magic concoction of peanut butter and other household ingredients that will make his hair grow back. He is given the recipe and the ghosts disappear. Giving it a chance, Michael sets out to gather the ingredients and makes the solution. Once made, he spreads the substance all over his bald scalp in the hopes of growing his hair back. Unbeknownst to Michael however, he has used too much peanut butter.
The next morning he wakes up to his dad and sister ecstatic and jumping for joy. “You’re hair’s grown back Michael!” the dad screams, and it sure has. Overnight, Michael’s hair has fully grown back, and as he sees this in the mirror for himself then proceeds to run around the house in happiness, it keeps growing. By the end of the day, his hair is down to his shoulders. The solution has worked so well, his hair won’t stop growing. Each time he cuts it, it grows back in minutes. However, happy with having more than a full head of hair back, Michael gets on with his life.
Back at school, Michael tries his best to conceal his uncontrollable hair growth, but it doesn’t go unnoticed. Michael’s art teacher, who the students call the Signor, catches wind of this and comes up with a devilish plan to harvest Michael’s hair....
Now this is where the film gets even wierder; Michael is kidnapped by the Signor and taken to a factory, where other kidnapped children work as slaves, cutting off Michael’s hair and turning it into paint brushes. The Signor then uses these paint brushes to create paintings that come to life and can somehow allow people to walk into them!
I know! I am confused as you are, but as a child I was fascinated by this movie. I don’t know why my parents let my sisters and I watch it, as there are references to not just bullying and the kidnapping of children, but possibly inclinations towards pedophilia and an obsession with puberty. Well, that was the 80’s for you. That incomparable decade surely spun out some unusual films, and having been a child of the 80’s, I just so happened to watch this one.
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