As a kid, Cindy You-Know-Who’s mother was murdered by a monster dressed as Santa Claus. All grown up now, her therapist recommends she goes back to her childhood home in Newville to face her past trauma. Not long after her return, The Mean One once again begins to terrorize the town and it’s residents as any sign of Christmas appears. This movie is a horror parody of the beloved children’s classic, How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
David Howard Thornton plays the self-titled character. Horror fans will be familiar with Thornton’s portrayal of Art the Clown in the Terrifier movies. He does a great job of combining the evil and playful sides of the character. I would place this in the horror comedy category for sure. The movie incorporated a lot of the characteristics of the original cartoon such as the narration in rhyme and changed the names of characters and locations, i.e., Cindy You-Know-Who and Newville. I also thought they did well with blending together the new storyline with some cartoony aspects. I feel like they did a good job paying homage to the original cartoon.
The acting was not the best, but not terrible. The first half of the movie I was impressed with the acting but about halfway through it all went to shit. The storyline that made Cindy this badass and hellbent on killing the monster was lame. They spent a lot time explaining what this monster was but I would have liked to see him on screen more. Also, the killings were not very creative. I was expecting a lot more gore and this just left my horror-loving heart disappointed.
It had its moments of fun but ultimately fell flat. I would not pay to see this but if you are so inclined, The Mean One will be opening exclusively at Regal Cinemas nationwide on December 9th.
