The Peanut Butter Solution

The Peanut Butter Solution. 1985. Dir. Michael Rubbo. With Matthew Mackay, Siluck Saysanasy, Alison Darcy, Michael Hogan, Michael Maillot, Helen Hughes, Griffith Brewer, Harry Hill. Written by Vojtech Jasny, Andree Pelletier, Louise Pelletier, Michael Rubbo. 

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If David Lynch ever directed a children’s film, it might look and feel close to Michael Rubbo’s bizarre 1985 feature The Peanut Butter Solution. Unavailable to mainstream audiences for decades, it was recently released on DVD, Blu-Ray and streaming services (as of this writing, if you have an Amazon membership, it’s free on Amazon Prime). I vaguely remembered it, having seen it when I was a child after my grandparents had rented it from the video store. Watching it over thirty years later, I’m kind of surprised that my grandparents let me watch it.

Last week, I wrote about 1987’s The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, another “children’s” film that is strange and unsettling in a way most modern-day family movies simply are not. This is not a criticism, more of an observation, but I can’t think of another movie made for kids that features so prominently both child abduction and the rapidly-growing pubic hair of a minor (I’m not kidding). The supernatural element may be the most normal aspect of The Peanut Butter Solution.

Matthew Mackay plays Michael, a normal Canadian boy living with his artistic father Billy (Michael Hogan) and his sister Suzie (Alison Darcy). His mother is absent for some unexplained reason (although she does return later in the picture, without much commentary on her absence), and Suzie seems to be playing the matriarchal role in the home. Before too long, Michael and his friend Conrad (Siluck Saysanasy) are passing by a creepy abandoned house, and Michael, while exploring the house, sees something so terrifying that all of his hair falls out.

The rest of the film involves helpful ghosts, unhelpful ghosts, a really sinister teacher named The Signor (Michael Maillot), the titular hair remedy, multiple kidnappings and magic paintbrushes. The Peanut Butter Solution is absolutely bananas in its storytelling, and there were many moments that left my mouth agape.

There is a gentle wholesomeness to even the more perverse and problematic pieces of the film. There are lessons to be learned, and metaphorical wounds to be healed. I think it’s this weird balancing act of sweetness and darkness that makes the whole crazy movie work so well. This is, quite simply, a movie that could not be made today.