Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)

"How about a bumper sandwich, Boogerlips!" - Ernest

Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) is about Ernest P. Worrell (Jim Varney) who works as a garbage collector in a small Missouri town. Despite the warnings of superstitious local Old Lady Hackmore (Eartha Kitt), he accidentally unleashes devious troll Trantor (Jonas Moscartolo), a slimy creature confined under a tree for 200 years. Trantor changes some kids into wooden dolls and turns Ernest's dog, Rimshot, into a log. Ernest then teams up with Old Lady Hackmore to get rid of the beast and bring the victims back to life. (Source: WIKI) 

I absolutely love this movie. It is for sure cult halloween classic. Jim Varney was a fantastic character actor and this movie was a true test of that. He had multiple personalities, which made him even crazier. 

One thing that sort of put me off is that the kids did not find it weird at all when Ernest would switch to his multiple personalities. For me, I'd stay away from this guy with a split personality, but thats me. 

Anyway, Ernest attempts to help the kids find a tree to have the most epic treehouse in the woods, because let's face it, it's the 90s and that's just normal. They stumble across a really old tree that happens to house a 200 year old Troll. Now thinking about it, the ending is a little iffy, but we will get there. 

Now one of the other main actress in this is the legendary Eartha Kitt, who plays the crazy junkyard lady. She might be remembered mostly as playing Catwoman in the Batman TV series. 

She is very convincing in her perspective roll. She finds out that the kids built a tree house in the same tree that houses this troll. She gets very upset and leaves. Then when Ernest goes to talk to her about it.  she tells him the spell to bring the Troll back to life. Like why? I have a theory. This goes along with the ending. So, at the end of the movie, the troll is defeated and all the kids that were turned to stone are revived. Magic am I right? Anyway, a few kids from the 1800s (so 200 years previous) are revived and a few of them call Lady Hackmore sister? Does that mean she is 200 years old? Is she immortal? I'm lost now. 

Now to my theory, what if she told him the spell and how to say it, so it would wake up the troll so she could get the kids (including her family) from their frozen state, because she is see putting them back by the tree. Also she knew how to kill the troll. My whole thing, is if she knew that before, she could have saved everyone. 

So, that is what Ernest was the entire time, her scapegoat, because it was his great grandfather who actually buried the troll with the tree. I mean this movie isn't perfect in any sense. There are some plot wholes and cheesy moments. One scene in particular, is when there is a mother and daughter fighting in a parking lot. They argue and then like 3 seconds later they love each other. It it just out of place and really random. I mean it makes Lady Hackmore realize that it's "Milk" that kills the trolls, but I mean that's written in her book; so personally it wasn't needed in the movie. 

Meanwhile, Ernest thinks it's Miak, which is also something that I didn't know was a thing. Although, I did look it up and no it's not a real thing. This is actually one of the greatest bits in the movie, because first it's not even a real thing, yet he still manages to find some. Anyway, I'm surprised the troll didn't burst out laughing when he showed up with this little ancient bottle of miak. 

Speaking of the troll, the special effects make-up is absolutely amazing. He always looks like he's always dripping with snot and it's so gross. I think this was the first "killer" troll movie and it was terrifying as a kid. I think I know why. 

The troll masks were recycled from 1988s Killer Klowns from Outer Space. That is freaking clever!! This isn't the only connection that the two movies have in common. Another connection is how they die. For the clowns they got shot in the nose, they spin in a sparkling light show and then blow up. For the trolls, when they are hit with milk, they exhibit the same death sequence. It was something that I didn't even consider until I read another review on this movie. 

So, with that being said, it is pretty cool that these two movies mirror each other and they are also sort of parodies for other movies. Honestly, I'd like the believe this movie is a parody for all the Troll movies that came out in the 80s. 

One last thing I wanted to talk about is the beginning credits. I like how they spliced in old horror movies from the 40s and 50s as Ernest looks around scared. This started my love for horror movies and I was so ready to see some of those movies. Since then I have seen a few of them and I absolutely fell in love with horror movies.

Now this movie did not well in the theaters during its initial release, but has become a cult movie. It drives me crazy that it does not get played during Halloween nor is it available on any of the streaming services. Come on, it's not that bad of a movie. It's actually really good. Like I've mentioned, this movie is not perfect in by any means, but it is still a good and it's a great comedy from the 90s. It had a budget of $9.6 million and made $14.1 million in the box office. Yeah it failed completely with both critics and box office numbers. I still think this movie is a great movie and a great addition to the horror comedy genre. 

I highly recommend this movie to any horror/Jim Varney fan. It is widely available for rental on all the streaming services like iTunes, Amazon, YouTube and GooglePlay. 

IMDB: 5.8/10 || Rotten Tomatoes: 17%

Sleep Tight, 

A Nightmare on Movie Night