Ernest Scared Stupid

Ernest Scared Stupid is a 1991 American comedy film directed by John R. Cherry III and starring Jim Varney. It is the fifth film to feature the character Ernest P. Worrell. The film has Ernest accidentally unleashing an army of trolls upon a small town on Halloween and the plot involves him joining a few children in fighting back. It was shot in Nashville, Tennessee like its predecessors Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam, Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas, and Ernest Goes to Jail. It was the last Ernest film to be distributed theatrically by Touchstone Pictures. Due to the film's modest gross of $14,143,280 at the U.S. box office, 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.

Plot
Trantor - a demonic troll who transforms children into wooden dolls to feast upon their energy out on Briarville, Missouri in the 19th Century. He is captured by a townsfolk and sealed under a giant oak tree. One of the village elders named Phineas Worrell, 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 – and that every generation of Worrells would get "dumber and dumber and dumber", culminating in Ernest P. Worrell.

Two hundred years later, Ernest, a sanitation worker, helps a few of his middle school friends, Kenny Binder, Elizabeth and Joey, construct a tree house in the same tree that unknowingly contains the dormant creature, after the mayor's sons demolished their own cardboard haunted house. When Old Lady Hackmore (Eartha Kitt) discovers this she leaves in shock and upset. When Ernest follows her, he learns the story of Trantor and reports it to the kids. Inadvertently he releases the troll, who terrifies Ernest, then later confronts Joey who falls into a pit during a rain storm. Lulling him into a false sense of security using Ernest's voice, he takes Joey and turns him into a wooden doll. Ernest finds Sheriff Cliff Binder, who is Kenny's dad, and explains the situation to him, but they don't believe him. After none of the townsfolk will aid Ernest, not believing his story, he mounts a one-man (and one-dog) defense operation in preparation for Trantor's appearance. Meanwhile, Trantor captures a boy on a skateboard for his second victim.

Tom and Bobby Tulip, hoping to take advantage of Ernest, sell him a variety of fake troll traps, but one backfires on the mayor's sons and he is fired from his job. He returns to Hackmore for help, accompanied by Kenny and Elizabeth; they learn that "the heart of a child, and a mother's care" are the only defenses against the troll. Later that night, Elizabeth hears something under her bed, but finds that it was just her teddy bear; when she turns around, she is attacked by Trantor and made his third victim. While Kenny and a friend named Gregg (who is dressed as a Native American) are walking, Trantor uses Elizabeth's voice to lure Kenny away, then takes Gregg as a fourth victim. Despite parents being upset at their missing children, Mayor Murdock still proceeds with a Halloween party at the school. Trantor appears there and takes the mayor's oldest son as his fifth and final wooden doll. In the ensuing fight between Trantor and Ernest, Trantor turns Ernest's dog Rimshot into a wooden doll before being driven off by frozen yogurt covering Ernest's hands. Kenny realizes that "Mother's care" refers to milk, and rallys a troll-fighting team to destroy them.

Back at the treehouse, Trantor successfully summons dozens of trolls while Ernest tries but fails to stop them. Kenny and his friends arrive and begin destroying the trolls with milk. Kenny unsuccessfully tries to destroy Trantor, who turns Kenny into a doll as well. With the rest of the townsfolk now backing him up and telling him to douse Trantor in milk, Ernest realizes that the troll 'children' were susceptible to the milk, while Trantor himself would be weak against unconditional love: "the heart of a child". He takes Trantor and dances with him while the mob watches, filling him with as much love as possible and finishing it off with a kiss to his snot-ridden nose, which causes Trantor to explode.

With Trantor's destruction, Ernest is proclaimed a hero. All of the wooden dolls of the children (and Rimshot), including four friends from Hackmore's childhood, are restored, and life returns to normal.