Ernest Scared Stupid
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| Ernest Scared Stupid | |
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| Directed by | John R. Cherry III |
| Produced by | Martin Erlichman |
| Written by | Charles Gale Coke Sams |
| Starring | Jim Varney Eartha Kitt Austin Nagler |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1991-10-11 (USA) |
| Running time | 92 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Ernest Goes to Jail |
| Followed by | Ernest Rides Again |
| IMDb profile | |
Ernest Scared Stupid is a 1991 Touchstone Pictures film directed by John R. Cherry III and starring Jim Varney. It is the fifth film to feature the character Ernest P. Worrell. In the movie, Ernest accidentally unleashes an army of trolls upon a small town on Halloween. The film received a PG rating from the MPAA. This was shot on location in Nashville, Tennessee.
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[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jim Varney | Ernest P. Worrell |
| Eartha Kitt | Old Lady Hackmore |
| Austin Nagler | Kenny |
| Shay Astar | Elizabeth |
| John Cadenhead | Tom Tulip |
| Bill Byrge | Bobby Tulip |
| Richard Woolf | Matt |
| Nick Victory | Mike |
[edit] Plot
Trantor - a troll who turns children into wooden dolls to feast upon their energy - is captured by the 19th century townsfolk of Briarville and sealed under a giant oak tree. One of the village elders, an ancestor of Ernest, establishes the seal under the condition that Trantor can only be released on the night before Halloween and by the hands of a Worrell. Fast-forwarding to the present day, Ernest and a few of his middle school friends are meeting in a treehouse on the exact branches that grow above the dormant creature. Old Lady Hackmore, a local superstitious hermit, finds Ernest and the children building the treehouse. Ernest tries to talk to her and is heard the story of Trantor. Skeptical, Ernest tells the story to the kids. After using the exact words to release him, Ernest inadvertently releases the troll. Trantor frightens Ernest and then goes after the children of Briarville. One of the kids, Joey, is going home from the treehouse and falls into a muddy hole. While trying to get out, Joey reaches his hand and Trantor grabs it. Trantor first disguises his voice as Ernest's, then transforms Joey into his first wooden doll. Ernest attempts to mount a defense against Trantor, but the townspeople do not believe his story and refuse to provide assistance. Ernest tries to find Ms. Hackmore and tells her what happened. As Ernest and Ms. Hackmore are trying to figure out how to destroy Trantor, Two of the kids that were at the treehouse the previous night, Kenny and Elizabeth, come trying to find Ernest. Kenny and Elizabeth are followed by Trantor. As Trantor tries to get the two, he finds a boy on a skateboard. Trantor grabs the boy and carried him over the shoulder to the treehouse.He soon has his second victim. Ernest and Kenny form a troll-fighting squad and set up traps around the neighborhood. While at home, Elizabeth is sitting in bed and hears something from underneath. She looks and only finds a stuffed bear. She turns around, only to find Trantor sitting next to her. Elizabeth is now victim #3 and Trantor only needs two more souls to unleash his army. Trantor later causes a disturbance at the school Halloween dance which culminates in a fight with Ernest after he gets punched. Mysteriously, the troll flees from the school after Ernest becomes covered in frozen yogurt. The townspeople, having seen Trantor with their own eyes, decide to go to the treehouse and attempt to defeat the troll. At the same time, several local children led by Kenny (Austin Nagler) determine that the troll can be destroyed by being exposed to milk. They steal milk products from a convenience store and head to the treehouse on their bicycles. Trantor reaches the treehouse first, and having acquired the necessary number of child figurines, begins to raise a troll army. The townspeople arrive and battle the now numerous trolls but are quickly overwhelmed. Fortunately, the children appear and begin attacking the trolls with milk. Meanwhile, Trantor receives greater powers and becomes impervious to milk. The troll army is soon defeated, and everyone believes that they have won. However, Trantor appears and quickly transforms Kenny into a wooden doll. Ernest initially believes that he can defeat Trantor with milk, but soon realizes that milk was only effective against the other trolls because it symbolizes a mother's love for her child - and that the only way Trantor can be defeated is through love. He embraces Trantor and begins dancing, overwhelming the troll with love and affection. Trantor is destroyed, and the wooden figurines transform back into children (as does Ernest's dog, Rimshot).
[edit] Trivia
- Due to the film's modest gross of $14,143,280 at the U.S. box office [1], this was the final Ernest film to be released under the Disney label Touchstone Pictures. All future Ernest films would be independently produced, and following the financial failure of the theatrical release Ernest Rides Again, all Ernest films would shift to a straight-to-video market.
- The film's opening credits feature a montage of clips from various horror and science fiction films. It is highly likely that the clips were used more for their public domain status (making them free for the filmmakers to use) rather than their fame. Films seen in the credits include Nosferatu (1922), White Zombie (1932), Phantom from Space (1953), The Brain from Planet Arous (1957), The Screaming Skull (1958), Missile to the Moon (1958), The Hideous Sun Demon (1959), The Giant Gila Monster (1959), The Killer Shrews (1959), Battle Beyond the Sun, and the Roger Corman-directed black comedy The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
[edit] References
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