MovieChat Forums > The Peanut Butter Solution (1985) Discussion > Why does it have this effect on us?

Why does it have this effect on us?

posted 15 years ago by StaunchWoman
9 replies | jump to latest

For the longest time I thought this was a messed-up dream I had, until I remembered the title and read some comments relaying the same thing!

What is it about this particular film, that it's branded itself into our subconscious?!? Among many things, I think it has a lot to do with the score of the film. Now, I haven't seen it in a very long time, but recalling scenes brings the dark music to mind...

A particular scene I seem to remember vividly is the first day Michael is wearing the wig his dad suggested he wear. He's at school playing soccer when this bully comes up to him and just rips it off. I'm not sure if it's because of the glue that kept the wig on looked like some kind of gore while being ripped off, but this particular scene stuck with me forever.

What is it about this film that's so... permanent?

[–] qPuppet 15 years ago

That scene disturbed me so much as a kid! I think it was the weird music.

[–] thewickedchef01 14 years ago

i've had a nightmare my entire life combining the scene when michael is laying down at his house with the two old people leaning over him and the scene when the kids are all laying in the hair factory place. it's always been a vague hazy nightmare that combined each of the things that scared me the most in the movie. this movie absolutely traumatized me.

I'm going to pull your endocrine system out of your body.

[–] Rainysky 13 years ago

Wow, this messageboard feels somewhat like a support group for people with a traumatizing childhood experience. Like so many others, this film scared the hell out of me when I was little, and even then I was a horror junkie. I loved horror films like Nightmare on Elm Street, Fright Night, The Blob, and Creepshow, and could watch them over and over, but for some reason, the Peanut Butter Solution disturbed me so much that even though it was unforgettable, I never wanted to see it a 2nd time.
I probably saw it when I was 7 or 8. Certain parts I remember clearly like the bully pulling the boy's wig off and the boy being scared in the haunted house. And a few others I'm not entirely sure of: isn't there a scene where the teacher scolds the kid for using his imagination in class when painting a dog? And is there a part where the kid is lying motionless outside, and the teacher kneels down and feeds him some yogurt??? I'd like to know if I remember these things correctly but even though I'm 30 now and have seen sooo many disturbing and intense films, I have no desire at all to revisit it to find out.
I wonder if the makers of this movie have any idea how disturbing this was to children.

[–] SpankyMagooEsq 13 years ago

Like everyone else here, I'm amazed at the fact that this little Canadian kids movie has stayed in our memories for so long. I saw this film only once when I was around the age of 4 or 5 on Nickelodeon or The Disney Channel. It certainly left an impression. I'm 22 now and I can still recall that soccer scene. Every few years I'd remember that one scene for some reason despite not remembering the name of the movie (or the plot). I was excited when I somehow stumbled upon this imdb page. It's a great feeling to finally know the movie that I've been chasing after all of these years. Thanks to youtube, we can all experience the horror all over again!

I wonder if the people who worked on this film realize that they scarred an entire generation of children.

[–] thewickedchef01 12 years ago

Haha i hope they feel guilty!!

All right. I shoplifted the pootie.

[–] crunkrocka 12 years ago

I seriously think the people who made this movie were on some heavy-duty psychedelics. That's the only explanation I can come up with. Peanut butter pubes? Who thinks up that sh-t?

Okay. Now I'm going to do his teeth and cut off his fingers. You might want to leave room.

[–] 5535 12 years ago

Very creepy movie!!!

I saw it when I was seven, after finding the VHS cover to be cool looking. This is after I had seen quite a few R rated horror movies, few of which scared me in any way.

After watching this movie, I slept with my hand on my head for almost a year, afraid I'd wake up with no hair unless I did this.

I think it's the combo of weird things taking place in the movie, like young people going bald, weird looking dogs, the creepy kidnapping painter, the dead couple who burned alive in the house, the freaky imagery, and most of all the damn music!

Without the music, I think this wouldn't have had as much of an effect on us.

Celine Dion is also to blame :)

[–] Crentapa 9 years ago

I'd suspect it's because everything parents said about how young kids are impressionable and videogames, movies, yadda yadda is true. (Actually, we've known it to be true, it's just the kids/young-adults who deny it fervently.)

This film deals with some very complex subject matter that, to a young kid, is hard to understand. A kid who trespasses onto property loses all his hair after seeing ghosts, who are friendly, and deals with bullying but then gets a recipe for hair growth which he modifies with extra peanut butter (why? I don't know) and can't stop growing hair and then gets people coming after him over it ending with some seriously screwed up implications.

*May or maynot remember things correctly*

Either way, it's hard for a young you to understand what is going on which means the film fragments in your mind and becomes all that more "dreamlike" as key components disappear; and as you get older you begin thinking that there's no way something so convoluted could have been a kids movie and believe it to be a dream.

But it's not... it's real... and the ghosts are coming to get you... and whatever creepy villain came after that.

[–] KingBob (2266) 4 months ago

That seems to be a lot of people’s experience. I saw it when I was 8, then forgot about it for decades but it laid dormant in my subconscious the entire time then one day in my adulthood I was like “wait, I saw this really bizarre acid trip of a movie about a kid with uncontrollably growing hair”.