It also stars Dwight Yoakam, J. T. Walsh, John Ritter, Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday, James Hampton, and Robert Duvall.

Sling Blade was filmed in 24 days,[5] on location in Benton, Arkansas,[6] produced by David L. Bushell and Brandon Rosser.

He has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 after murdering his mother and her teenage lover, who was also his tormentor, with a sling blade.

Vaughan is concerned about Karl's history, but Linda asks him to move into her garage, which her abusive and alcoholic boyfriend, Doyle begrudgingly accepts.

He scolds his father for his past cruelty to him and to his brother and says that he thought many times about killing him, but no longer sees the need as he is an old man and will be dead soon enough.

Realizing that an unhappy childhood or worse awaits Frank, Karl persuades him and Linda to spend the night at Vaughan's house.

Later that evening, he returns to the Wheatley home carrying a sharpened lawn mower blade, and finds Doyle drunk and alone in the living room.

Charles begins telling him more private stories about unsolved crimes involving sexual violence, and then questions him about his relationship with Frank.

[8][1] He expanded the monologue into a short film, Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade, directed by George Hickenlooper and starring Thornton, Molly Ringwald, and J.T.

[13] Kevin Thomas wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the film is "a mesmerizing parable of good and evil and a splendid example of Southern storytelling at its most poetic and imaginative".

[14] The New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised the performances but said that "it drifts gradually toward climactic events that seem convenient and contrived".