Ernest Scared Stupid Turns 35 Years Old Today
A comic book sequel is on the way
Ernest Scared Stupid, the cult-favorite screwball comedy starring Jim Varney as Ernest P. Worrell, was released in theaters 35 years ago today.
Ernest Scared Stupid was the fourth of nine Ernest feature films (assuming you don’t count the character’s cameo in 1983’s Doctor Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam). It was also the final major-studio relese for the iconic 1980s character, reportedly because the Walt Disney Company was unhappy with how scary the movie was for some kids.
In the movie, Ernest P. Worrell leads a group of kids in a quest to rid his hometown of a group of trolls, previously banished for centuries by one of Ernest’s ancestors. The genre trappings were nothing new for Ernest, whose function was to step into a style, genre, or fad of movie and give it the ol’ Ernest twist.
In 2024, professor and writer Corey Perkins crowdfunded Ernest & The Dream Stone, a graphic novel pitting Ernest against Dr. Otto and serving as a thematic sequel to Scared Stupid, which Perkins cites as his favorite Ernest movie.
“This story is my love letter to Ernest Scared Stupid, which has become one of my favorite movies. Not my favorite Ernest movies, my favorite movies,” Perkins told me in 2024. “You’ll see a lot of influence from that movie, but Ernest has some new challenges to face in this story. It’s not just pure horror — there’s also a heartfelt story arc going on behind it. I got that from the pathos of Ernest Goes to Camp.I know a lot of people might think, ‘Pathos? Ernest Goes to Camp?’ Go back and watch it. Yes, it’s a zany comedy. Yes, it’s funny. Yes, it’s slapstick. But there are some really touching moments that are almost magical in the way Jim Varney, as Ernest, gets people to emote.”
In addition to a new Ernest comic, there is an upcoming documentary, The Importance of Being Ernest, about star Jim Varney’s life and based on a biography of the same name. The book was written by Varney’s nephew, Justin Lloyd.
