The Peanut Butter Solution

I can't vouch for how scary this film might seem to a child - this is one of the few IMDb reviews written by someone who didn't see the movie when young - but I can confirm that it has a very weird tone that could be disturbing to kids: the way the story is told is just a little off-kilter, making the whole thing feel like a bad dream.

The bizarre plot concerns 11-year-old Michael (Mathew Mackay), who investigates a burnt-out spooky mansion where something frightens him so much that all of his hair falls out. Bullied at school for being bald, Michael is delighted when he is visited by two ghosts who give him a recipe to solve his problem, the crucial ingredient being peanut butter. Painting the concoction on his head before bedtime, he wakes the next day to discover that the mixture has worked - but having put too much peanut butter into the solution, his hair growth is rapid and unstoppable.

Matters get even more strange when Michael is abducted and used by mad painter Sergio (Michel Maillot) as the source of hair for his magic paintbrushes, which are assembled by other kidnapped children. It is up to Michael's sister Suzie (Alison Darcy) and best friend Connie (Siluck Saysanasy) to come to the rescue.

Given a bigger budget and a better cast, I could imagine this film receiving the same level of love and admiration reserved for family favourites like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Labyrinth and Coraline - it certainly has a lot of imagination - but as it stands, it's merely a curiosity remembered fondly by those who saw it at an impressionable age. I can imagine most adults struggling with the cheap production values, poor performances and awkward storytelling - factors that help to make it a surreal experience but which discerning grown-ups might not find that appealing.

It took me ages to find the name of this movie, a movie I had watched as a child and had really really frightened me! I've been searching for this movie for YEARS! and i could only remember some parts of the film, when asking others if they remember the movie, they would look at me as if I'm crazy!!.. seems like a common thing reading all the other users comments, anyway.. This film is full of imagination, suspence, and is over all Fun and Scary for little kids.. it might even be scary for Adults too.. come on, a guy goes bold from being frightened? .. I was frightened all the time as a kid, perhapse i thought i was going to go bold! .. anyway if you havent seen this movie you should! its one of my favourites from childhood, up with the goonies!

I ve been working in videos stores for 5yrs now and every time someone new comes and works in the video store I always ask have you ever seen a movie where this kid loses his hair and uses this stuff with peanut butter in it to make his hair grow. And everyone always looks at me strangely and say no. I had seen this movie in school a few times when i was 6 or 7 and it also scared the crap out of me and made a lasting impression but didn't know the name of the movie. So finally I did a random search and typed in peanut butter in a movie search engine and got the title Peanut Butter Solution. I bought a VHS copy from Amazon and just watched it with my 6yr old son but I don't think it scared him as much as it did to the kids in the 80s. It was everything I remembered but I had forgotten all about the ending with the magic paintings which now looks like the moving pictures you can buy in the mall. But yes this movie is classic for someone in their 20s who have seen this movie and I think its too bad it didn't stick around.

I totally agree that the movie is not a comedy and not for children. I can't think of a darker film.

I saw this as a child and have vividly horrible memories of the scene where he gets his wig yanked off in the soccer game. All the imagery taps into a child's deepest fears. Even the gooey quality of the peanut butter itself and spreading it all over your head. And the orphanage / sweatshop where they starve the children. I had nightmares of being trapped in there.It's just so wrong.

It would probably seem campy to watch now, but the original impact my psyche is irreversible. It's so funny that literally everyone in the forums had the same experience. I've never seen such unanimity in on IMDb.

It seems almost all the posts people have on this movie are memories of watching it as a child, and then having vague memories of bits and pieces as an adult...

I must say, I'm not much different in this matter either. All I could remember was bits and pieces of the plot line. I do remember getting nightmares from it (like most people), not that this is particularly a scary movie by today's standards, but to a child it definitely puts a psychological fear that stays with you. So I looked it up, trying every search word I could think of, (i.e. hair loss, regrowth, solution, paintbrushes) Ehh... after browsing through tons of rogain ads, I finally came across it. I managed to find a copy and watched it again.

It's actually a truly unique movie. A novel idea about a kid who loses his hair, and gets more than he wishes when he applies a magical hair-growth solution. I think perhaps it wasn't marketed correctly back in the 80's because while it seems like a childs movie, I wouldn't recommend it to young children. Maybe not just the marketing either, but the movie itself would've probably been able to stand on its own without being characterized as a child's movie. I would bet that there are probably even people today who have been scarred from watching this as a very young child...

So, if you come across it, it's worth checking out. But sensor before letting your kids see this one!