The Mean One (2022)

I love doing reviews on the lesser known and more controversial horror movies. I’m very open minded on horror and feel there is something for everyone. It may not be my cup of tea but it’s someone’s. I’ve seen all kind of reviews from it’s a fun watch, it’s the worst garbage, and it’s such a bad movie I highly recommend it.

Ok, so I’m the weird one who really loved Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey, so I was really excited for a horror version of the grinch. I’m a bit behind other reviewers so I have already seen some opinions. There have been a few negative reviews, but I wanted to go in with child-like horror wonder.

So let’s talk about this, it starts with a what-if scenario. First we see the Grinch as Santa and Cindy as it happens in the source material. Well, what-if instead of Cindy-Lou changing the Grinch’s heart, her mom sees the two of them and goes all Rambo on him for Breaking and Entering!!! Check out the Trailer:

Time jump “nearly 20 years later” we see Cindy Lou going home for closure based on her therapist’s recommendations.

On the way into town Cindy and her father get stopped by the police due to the Christmas Decorations on their vehicle. The town has strict laws prohibiting all Christmas decor within city limits. To make matters worse as Cindy revisits the old homestead, the town immediately sees her return as unnecessary chaos and Cindy is crazy.

Now, I didn’t know this fact going in and I should have, but David Howard Thornton is the Grinch,. Sorry, I mean the Mean One. Art the Clown himself brings his mime style of acting to gruesome horror while at the same time embodying Jim Carrey’s run as the green one. This was a lot of fun and the facial makeup was great. Much better than Winnie the Pooh movie version. The rest of the cast is great too. I would be failing if I didn’t mention Krystle Martin as Cindy. Her character has a great build up leading to a very impressive Rhonda Rousey like montage.

So, as I watched this I got a kick out of all the subtle references that linked the movie to the stories and shows, but started to wonder why not say Grinch. With Winnie the Pooh hitting public domain allowing for Blood and Honey, Where did the Grinch sit?

Doing some research I found a Fangoria article I somehow missed when it was published Last year 11/23/22. Follow the link to read the full article, but the basic explanation is a parody can utilize loopholes. They never said the Grinch in the movie, the main character is referred to a Cindy you-know-who, and we are not in Whoville but we visit the quiet town of Newville. There are a lot of other really great Easter Egg like references I won’t spoil for you. I really enjoyed these little details.

So the review. Those that call themselves die hard horror fans will be disappointed. They will find endless problems and ways to complain that this movie was the biggest let down ever and why would Thornton stoop so low blah blah blah. For the rest of us who will not necessarily say we are die hard fans, but actual fans of horror, this movie is so bad it’s great. It’s cheesy, goofy, full of plot hole, and pure horror gold. In my opinion. I highly recommend this movie as a great Christmas massacre.

I give it 🥃🥃🥃🥃 out of 5. This will be a holiday horror tradition for me. It’s not perfect, but it’s still worth checking out.