177) The Mean One (2022)

"This town cannot go through another Christmas killer thing."

Director
Steven LaMorte

Cast
David Howard Thornton - The Mean One
Krystle Martin - Cindy
Chase Mullins - Detective Burke
John Bigham - Doc Zeus
Erik Baker - Sheriff Hooper
Flip Kobler - Lou
Amy Schumacher - Mayor McBean

* Minor Spoilers ahead *

After trailers for the 2022 slasher film "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey," a horror reimagining of A.A. Milne's classic Winnie the Pooh story were released, rumors of a horror reimagining of Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" slunked around. 

I thought it was all a joke to poke fun at the concept of turning children's stories into slasher flicks. 

There was even a teaser for this Grinch horror movie.  

Well, it's real. And it was released theatrically. Either I missed it, or it didn't play at a theater near me, Anyways, I found a copy of this horror movie simply called "The Mean One."

The story is a realistic modern retelling of Dr. Seuss's story. The Grinch character, simply referred to as "the Mean One," (David Howard Thornton) is the green, furry, Christmas hating creature from the story. However, he's certainly more maniacal and deadly.

In the mountain town of Newville, a little girl introduced by the narrator as "Cindy You-Know-Who" 

catches who she thinks is Santa stealing all the family's Christmas stuff. 

"Why, Santa?" she asks. 

Then her mother walks in and screams in terror. She starts beating up this "monster" in the house. And little Cindy witnesses this monster kill her mom, or so we think. 

The story transitions to twenty-years later. Cindy (Krystle Martin) returns to Newville with her dad at the suggestion of her therapist to help cope with the Christmas day tragedy she witnessed years ago. 

This green monster, who's never referred to as "Grinch" continues to terrorize Newville every Christmas season. 

Anyone who dares put up even one Christmas decoration, or show any outward sign of Christmas spirit, will meet their death at the hands of the Mean One. After witnessing the Mean One kill her father for daring to celebrate Christmas, Cindy goes to Sheriff Hooper (Erik Baker), who helped her when her mom died. He's reluctant to believe her claims about what she saw. 

Police Detective Burke (Chase Mullins) however wants to help. Of course, he has the hots for Cindy, and he's Jewish, so that might work in his favor. 

Newville's Mayor McBean (Amy Schumacher) wants Cindy out of town and is pressuring the sheriff to make that happen. She doesn't want any attention to this so-called "Mean One" lingering around Newville. 

But one person believes Cindy. A local named Mathias Zeus (John Bigham) lost his wife to the Mean One as she was taking presents from her car to the house. Everyone refers to him as Doc Zeus. Get it? Dr. Zeus!

David Howard Thornton as the "Mean One."

Anyways, he wants revenge just as much as Cindy. 

When the Mean One starts murdering holiday campers up near hiking trails in the nearby mountains, and other visitors in Newville, Cindy decides her mission is to kill the Mean One so the folks of Newville can celebrate Christmas without fear. Burke, Zeus, and Cindy create a plan to take him down.

It has a hint of satire as it puts the idea of the Grinch and his hatred for Christmas into a real-life scenario. The "Mean One" isn't a person in a mask terrorizing a town. It really is the Grinch, green fur and all.

What's unclear is whether he has some sort of supernatural power or not. He disappears quickly, and then reappears just as fast. 

And he seems to know, even from miles away, when someone in Newville so much as listens to a Christmas carol, or carries wrapped gifts from their car to their house, or jingles a sleigh bell. When anything Christmas related happens, he shows up right away to kill whoever dares celebrate in his general radius. 

Thorton, who's no stranger to horror, is decent in the role as far as actions and mannerisms go but has no lines. He's well known for portraying Art the Clown in the "Terrifier" movies, who also didn't speak.

It's an ambitious take, and just interesting enough to see how it all plays out. The story is pretty much the same up to the end, but with the premise that Cindy is going to take down the Mean One once and for all. 

Otherwise, the whole movie completely relies on the reimagined homicidal Grinch and the comical carnage he inflicts. Nothing is scary. Just gory and immensely predictable. Everything else, like the production value, acting, Grinch makeup, soundtrack, and just the overall quality are poor. Who would expect anything more? 

It's like a film project for a college film class. A lot of the jokes didn't get a laugh out of me. They just fell down dead. 

Of course, the story works in references to Dr. Seuss's story, such as Cindy building herself up to kill by exclaiming, "Let's roast this beast." 

Earlier, she's thinking about the Mean One while staring at a rendering of the creature Zeus drew up. 

"Maybe its shoes are too tight," she says. "Maybe his heart is two sizes too small." 

It's another hack n' slash flick that takes place around the most joyous time of the year, which is supposed to make the death all the more terrible. And it takes its inspiration from the 2000 movie adaptation starring Jim Carrey.  

There's potential for such an outlandish premise as far as comical satire goes, but this movie grazed that potential. Still, it has its fun moments - one or two of them. I wouldn't expect the little fun it produced to return in a second viewing. I think it was a one-time thing. By the end, the audience gets nothing about who this creature is or where it came from. Oh, well. It's just another failed experiment, I guess.