As we have seen on countless occasions, inevitably any successful comedy team will eventually find themselves amid a supposed career-defining film that will bring them to the attention of the mainstream, in an attempt to capitalize on their new and exciting prospects. The Kids in the Hall had been working as a team for several years, including a successful but slightly underseen sketch comedy programme that had many supporters, but was missing a certain quality in terms of character engagement, which is what the studio that greenlit their first feature film was probably aiming to rectify when they commissioned Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, the first feature film starring the quintet of Kevin McDonald, Scott Thompson, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney and Dave Foley (who had temporarily left the group to star in another television show, but still plays a vital role here). It seems bewildering that, in a decade as rich and interesting for comedy, especially following some very successful adaptations of characters from Saturday Night Live and other similar projects, this film seems so incredibly underpraised, despite being one of the most undeniably funny films produced at a time when the industry was embodying the idea of quantity over quality. A group collaboration that utilized each comedian’s strengths, the film assimilates some bizarre ideas into this hilariously irreverent work of unhinged brilliance that seems unable to restrain itself from plumbing the depths of society and its uncompromising way of existing in the modern world – and it just becomes 90 minutes of the most deranged humour this ragtag group of satirists could offer the viewer.

The appeal of Brain Candy is truly its exceptional sense of humour, and its willingness to go for broke in favour of chasing every potential joke, even if it means skirting dangerously close to controversy, something that the group has spoken about at length about some of their characters and the scenarios in which they’re placed. Like all of their work, this film is an acquired taste, and it requires the audience to be on the same wavelength as the comedians, whose surreal sense of humour and willingness to resort to the most deranged narrative structure resulted in a film caught somewhere between an absurdist nightmare and well-constructed satire. Taking the form of a narrative around the invention of a new drug that can supposedly cure depression, with numerous brief sojourns into smaller sub-plots, whether flashbacks experienced by various characters or just arbitrary asides that were likely the result of off-cuts that the writers struggled to constructively assimilate into the main narrative, Brain Candy represents some of the best work ever done by the comedy troupe, all of which are fully committed to bringing this film to life, disregarding the fact that their very existence had always been seen as controversial, something that they not only acknowledge through this film but seemingly lean into, encouraging the viewer to experience a range of different emotions, almost all of them pointing towards how strangely evocative their style of humour could be when done correctly.

Like any troupe of entertainers that is given the chance to bring their talents to the big screen (especially on as wide a platform as this), The Kids in the Hall relied on their strengths, and mercifully they were under the guidance of a director who gave them the free-reign to develop the story in their way. Kelly Makin had the difficult task of taking the raw energy of this group and harnessing it in such a way that it could be shaped into a coherent film, without losing the unique style that made them so iconic. This entailed both bringing some of their more popular characters from the television show into the film, but also creating an entirely new story – like their spiritual ancestors (mainly Monty Python, who were influences on their style of absurdist comedy), The Kids in the Hall were aware that what works in one medium does not necessarily translate to another, and that instead of just rehashing what had made them initially successful, they instead used that energy to create something entirely new. Brain Candy is rooted in the group’s past, with a few instances of characters crossing over from the show, but instead of just being a few sketches thrown together under the guise of being a spin-off of their previous work, it becomes something completely independent, hinging less on the audience’s pre-existing relationship with the material, and more on how much we can appreciate this specific film and its narrative, which is the ideal way to consume such a film. Regardless of their status as cult icons, appreciated by a small but passionate group of viewers, a film starring The Kids in the Hall was always going to need to be more accessible to a wider group of viewers – as much as we’d like to imagine Brain Candy was developed for the fans of the group, it was always going to be targeted at a broader audience, and considering the resources they had to work with, its quite an achievement that they managed to make a film that can be appreciated by newcomers and seasoned veterans alike.

Brain Candy is interesting insofar as it is both a perfect entry-point into the comedy of The Kids in the Hall, as well as a worthy gift to longtime fans of the show. It was produced after Foley left the group (although he would reteam with them on a variety of reunion shows they would do throughout the past couple of decades), so looking at it in the specific context in which it was made, it served to be something of a swan song for the group, a final victory lap that is bigger and bolder than anything that they had ever done before. It’s admirable that the studio and producers (amongst them Lorne Michaels, who is openly parodied throughout the film) allowed them to be given such immense freedom, since their style of humour may not be excessive, but is certainly not what audiences supposedly find palatable, at least from an executive viewpoint, where every joke needs to undergo a rigorous process of being tested and deconstructed. Brain Candy just allows this group of comedians to have fun – it never requires them to change their style, instead requesting them to simply construct a coherent story that could be marketed as a big-screen translation of their comedy, and then infusing their humour into this structure. It’s a process that may be slightly unorthodox, but it’s difficult to imagine the film approaching it in any other way. When you have as much chaotic energy as these individuals have when they’re put in a room together and asked to come up with something funny, it’s difficult to not appreciate the madness that ensues. All of this is captured perfectly in Brain Candy, which never takes anything for granted, and just chooses to very simply find the humour in absolutely every situation, regardless of how nonsensical some of its story may be – it’s all part of the experience of seeing these strange comedians in their element.

While it does, unfortunately, reside in relative obscurity, since it was released at a time when many similar films were being made, either as spin-offs of popular characters from existing media or as the opportunity for hardworking young comics to have a chance to lead vehicles designed around their specific talents. Add in the abundance of absurdist humour that dominated throughout the 1990s, as well as the very strange satire that was popular in all forms of media, and it’s easy to understand why Brain Candy has been seemingly forgotten by the general populace, many of whom may not even be aware of the film’s existence. However, it is far from a footnote when it comes to the long-lasting legacy of The Kids in the Hall – the jury is still divided on whether this or their show count as their best work, so the best reconciliation is to view them as symbiotic – without their years of hard work on stage and television, this film would not have been possible, and without this film, they’d have likely just been contained to a specific moment in the past, where viewers who weren’t aware of their existence at first may not have ever come to know about them, with this film being a great impetus for newcomers to actively seek out their work. Deliriously funny and told with a scathing wit that is often neglected in these surreal comedies – and it all leads to a truly encapsulating comedy that never takes itself too seriously, and allows us to have some fun with a group of deranged comedic geniuses who know how to extract laughter from some of the most peculiar scenarios, which comes to form one of the more inventive films of its era, and one in dire need of a re-evaluation.