The Mean One

The Mean One (2022) is a movie that I caught in theatres this evening (Regal Theatres picked it up). The storyline focuses on a town where eleven years ago a gruesome murder occurred leaving an entire household dead and one survivor, Cindy. As Cindy is finally learning to live with the nightmares from that night, similar occurrences start happening again around the town. Has the killer returned?

This movie is directed by Steven LaMorte (Nightwatch series) and stars David Howard Thornton (The Terrifier 1 & 2), Krystle Martin (They Live in the Grey), Chase Mullins (Driven), Amy Schumacher (Nightwatch series), John Bigham (Angel's Dance) and Erik Baker (One Stop Away).

The narration is good, has some nice comedy and reminded me of Malcolm McDowell. The storyline isn't good and neither is the acting outside of David Howard Thornton. The Grinch was fun for the most part. The writing for The Grinch's backstory wasn't good but the mannerisms and facial expressions were solid. His movements were cool too. The kills were okay, there was some solid gore and a plethora of nail and neck kills. I will warn viewers there's some bad CGI fire and blood splatter. The ending is absolutely atrocious. I didn't like the ending at all...but it fit.

Overall, this is bad, but an absolute must watch for those who enjoy bad horror films. I would score this a 3.5-4/10 and strongly recommend it.

So, this movie is a trip to say the least. Lots of cheap blood effects, many deaths, awkward acting, and some weird comedy mixed in with the horror aspect. The makeup is actually pretty good for such a small studio. The character of The Mean One is actually pretty good, and they don't add too much backstory, unlike some of the previous adaptations of the story. It's just "stealing lives, just like their Christmas" and not much more. This movie definitely doesn't fail at being entertaining for it's runtime (93 minutes). It might be pretty cheesy and poorly acted, but it is for sure a wild ride. Is it funny? Not really. Has it ruined my childhood? Probably. Despite all the negatives I've mentioned, it's actually fun to watch and I do recommend it to fans of the original story.

Jim Carrey's Grinch meets Terrifier's Art w/o a budget.... this movie on paper had so much potential and had a studio backed it financially, maybe it would have had a chance! Hardly any on-screen kills worthwhile and that's probably because the budget wasn't there for impressive special effects. No money also means no actors. And above all else, there's no licensing deal on the character or all that comes with it. It just feels like a High School film project. I love Art the Clown and the Terrifier movies are terrific gorefest slasher flicks. The Mean One falls flat on almost every level. The coolest thing is the design of The Grin... "The Mean One." Even that isn't original as it's a blatant ripoff of Jim Carrey's classic interpretation.

The Mean One is a 2022 Christmas slasher film produced and directed by Steven LaMorte (Bury Me Twice, Never Leave Alive, Trials of Ember, and One Step Away). It was written by Flip (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Lion King 2, and Pocahontas 2) and Finn Kobler (All Hallows Eve 2, Trophy Wife, M Is For Masochist, and Food For Thought). The film is a horror adaptation of Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! It grossed $612,260 in theaters during it's limited theatrical run. In 2000, in the sleepy mountain town of Newville, young Cindy You-Know-Who (played by: Saphina Chanadet from Veep) witnessed her mother (played by: Tina Van Berk) murdered by the Mean One (played by: David Howard Thornton from Terrifier, Terrifier 2, The Dark Offerings, Gotham, and Bupkis), a bloodthirsty green-skinned creature dressed in a red Santa suit.

Twenty years later, Cindy (played by: Krystle Martin from It's in the Streets, They live in the Grey, and 911: Lone Star) and her father Lou (played by: writer Flip Kobler from Silent and Forgotten, Bury Me Twice, and American Drive-In) return to the town at the suggestion of Cindy's therapist Doc Zeus (played by: John Bigham from Welcome to the Horror Show). When the brutal monster soon begins to terrorize the town and threatens to ruin the holidays, Cindy finds a new purpose in stopping and killing this Grinch. She has a mayor (played by: Amy Schumacher from Strange Events 1 and 2) trying to cover up everything at any cost plus two questionable sheriffs (played by: Erik Baker from The Verge and Chase Mullins from Driven) in her way. Can she finally put this nightmare to an end? Or Will it forever curse her life with pain and suffering????

The Mean One definitely grabbed my attention when it was first announced. You have a slasher version of the iconic Grinch and it's being played by David Howard Thornton who's mainly known as Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise. You really have to go into The Mean One with an open mind. It's a very very very low budget production which is pretty damn obvious during it's running time. Sometimes, independent features can look more expensive than it's actual budget depending on the skill level in it's departments but that's not the case here. Everything felt kinda rushed here to be honest. I thought stunt woman Krystle Martin was a decent lead in this but she didn't have much help when it came to the supporting cast. I noticed a few of them were writers or a producer for the project which explains a lot. David Howard Thornton as The Grinch / The Mean One is the highlight when it comes to this holiday themed slasher. He's great under fx and creative costumes when it comes to these types of horror movies. It actually has some decent gore and kills in The Mean One. This one kinda reminds me of those late 90's direct to video flicks. I think if this was released around then, it would have been more appreciated and it definitely would have had a solid cult following. These days, it just kinda blends in with everything out there.

Studios are being creative these days using iconic children characters in horror films like Winnie the Pooh, The Grinch, Mary had a little Lamb, and The Banana Splits. I think if The Mean One had a slightly bigger budget and a better cast, it could have been one of the best horror flicks of the year but it fell short when it came to that. I still think it's a pretty unique spin on the classic character and it's something I never expected to be made. If you can get past the bad acting and it's cheap atmosphere then you will probably enjoy it for David Howard Thornton and it's gory scenes. It has some replay value to it especially when it comes to Christmas horror. I think it at least deserves to be watched once just to experience it. Personally, I'm glad it's in my collection.

When I first read online that they were making a Christmas Horror Movie based on Dr. Suess' timeless classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", It really flipped my mind and was like "seriously?!", one thing's for sure is that ever since the failure of the live-action movie adaptation of "the Cat in the Hat"; Audrey Giesel told every movie executive not to adapt any of his classic stories into live-action films and almost 2 decades later, they never listen! The story is just bland and awkward and so are the characters that are literally just stereotypical characters even this movie has a lot of awkward acting, and cheap blood effects and the makeup design of the Mean One looks just plain cheesy and awkward at the same time. Whatever you do fans of this Dr. Suess story, do not see this since he and his wife are rolling in their graves by now and stick with the Original story as well as the Animated Special animated by the legendary Chuck Jones and even the 2000 film version starring Jim Carrey as the Title Character, plus the 2018 animated movie made by the studio that brought us Despicable Me films; it's okay and decent enough for anyone who enjoyed one of Dr. Suess' best-beloved stories both young and old.