One Of The Weirdest And Creepiest Kids Horror Movies Ever Is Streaming For Free

The concept of Ernest may seem alien to those below a certain age demographic, but for children of the 1980s and '90s, he was his own little phenomenon. Nashville-based advertising executive John R. Cherry co-developed the character for a long-running series of commercials, where he was played by actor Jim Varney. Ernest P. Worrell could be best described as a highly expressive blue collar worker caricature who often came across as a child trapped in an adult improv comic's body. His wardrobe always stuck to the signature short-sleeved gray crew neck T-shirt, blue jeans, denim utility vest and Khaki baseball cap special. While Ernest's popularity led to an Emmy award-winning television series ("Hey Vern, It's Ernest"), the brand mascot's true rise to fame among the mainstream came when Cherry and Varney decided to develop a whole bunch of movies around their chaotic spokesperson.

Only five of out nine Ernest movies were released theatrically, with the first four being distributed by Disney under their Touchstone Pictures label. The last one of these was "Ernest Scared Stupid," a deeply weird children's horror comedy that only could have been made in 1991. You don't even need to have seen the other movies if you haven't already because each one sort of resets Ernest in a different location with a new occupation, albeit with the same savvy inventor mindset. The Halloween-set oddity, which is now streaming for free on YouTube, sees the bumbling buffoon working as a local sanitation worker at the behest of a centuries-old curse that's made the Worrell bloodline progressively more ridiculous over the years. Upon accidentally awakening the previously buried Trantor the Troll (Jonas Moscartolo), Ernest seeks to right his mistake before the city of Briarville is transformed into Troll Central.

If the idea of Varney making a whole bunch of silly faces opposite clips of public domain horror movies in the opening credits sounds appealing, then do I have the Halloween treat for you.

The output of kids movies from the major studios as of late is downright pitiful, which often leads to unimaginative remakes of "Lilo & Stitch" and "How to Train Your Dragon" becoming box office hits because there's nothing else to counteract them. Although scripted by two adults (Charles Gale and Coke Sams), "Ernest Scared Stupid" feels like it was written by children, and I don't say that disparagingly. It features useless grown-ups, a treehouse fortress with built-in pizza catapults, and corny schoolyard one-liners like "How 'bout a bumper sandwich, Boogerlips?"

There are prolonged sequences throughout "Ernest Scared Stupid" where Varney goes through a lineup of different costumed characters during a single conversation and the people on the other side never comment on it. His surreal wide angle mugging has the potential to become grating, yet I find his bizarre physical comedy kind of endearing. The elasticity of Varney's face alone makes him feel like a Picasso painting come to life.

For all of its kid-friendly humor, there are a whole bunch of gags in this that elicited some huge laughs out of me, like Eartha Kitt using a person-sized can opener to get Ernest out of a barrel. Then there are things like Ernest leading a bunch of unattended children through an entrance to a haunted forest that looks like something Bonnie Aaron's Dumpster Demon from "Mulholland Drive" would peek out of. It's also the kind of gag that primes younger viewers for some genuinely good scares up ahead.

The most surprising aspect of "Ernest Scared Stupid" is how well it works as a gateway horror movie for kids. Trantor the Troll could easily be a cartoonish figure, but he presents a legitimate threat. Part of his plan involves stealing children's souls as a means of resurrecting his troll army. The only thing that remains of the Briarville kids are wooden figurines that upsettingly capture them in their frozen state of terror. Not to mention that Trantor was brought to life by the Chiodo Brothers, otherwise known as the special effects duo behind 1988's "Killer Klowns From Outer Space." He's slimy, funny, creepy and, most importantly, practical.

Cherry manages to conjure some surprising moments of suspense as well. Take when young Elizabeth (Shay Astar) is petrified by the idea of a monster being under her bed, so she slowly reaches her hand over to pull the sheets up. I won't dare spoil what happens next, but rest assured, it's a scare that proves kids can handle a good fright, even if Cherry believed that was the reason why it underperformed at the box office against the previous Ernest movies.

Seeing this early '90s oddity on a 35mm print at the Coolidge Corner's After Midnite program was like unearthing a time capsule where the contents were so befuddling that it only made us laugh even harder. When you get down to it, "Ernest Scared Stupid" is about a resourceful clown who accidentally unleashes an evil being upon the world, yet is foretold in an ancient book that he's the one destined to put an end to its reign of terror. It's "Army of Darkness" for kids!

"Ernest Scared Stupid" is currently streaming for free on YouTube.