{"id":7543,"date":"2024-10-27T14:18:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T18:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=7543"},"modified":"2024-10-27T14:18:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T18:18:25","slug":"the-mean-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/27\/the-mean-one\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mean One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Mean One<\/strong> (2022)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Atlas Film Distribution\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated No MPAA rating (strong bloody violence and gore, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steven LaMorte\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Flip and Finn Kobler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Yael Benamour\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Christopher Sheffield\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 9, 2022 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Howard Thornton, Krystle Martin, Chase Mullins, John Bigham, Erik Baker, Flip Kobler, Amy Schumacher, Tina Van Berk, Saphina Chanadet, Victoria Ippolito, Jessie Holder Tourtellotte, Allyson Sereboff, Rachel Winfree, Whit Spurgeon, Robert DiTillio, Josh Arnold.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $612,260 (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0When Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, took pen in hand to write How the Grinch Stole Christmas, I bet he never imagined somebody would come along and reimagine it as a horror movie. Well, somebody did and had he not been cremated, Seuss would still be spinning in his grave over The Mean One<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To be clear, it\u2019s an \u201cunauthorized\u201d parody of the classic children\u2019s tale that has enthralled generations of youngsters. What exactly does this mean? It means director Steven LaMorte did NOT have permission from the author\u2019s estate to adapt his book. As such, he can\u2019t use any of the original prose or language. He can\u2019t even use the word \u201cGrinch\u201d which is never once uttered hence the title The Mean One<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0HOWEVER, he can allude to the source. So it is that the action of The Mean One<\/strong> centers on a girl named Cindy You-Know-Who (Martin) who returns to her hometown of Newville for the holidays. It\u2019s kind of a big deal for her. Twenty years earlier, she witnessed her mother\u2019s death at the hands of the not-Grinch on Christmas Eve. Nobody believed her story about an ugly green monster in a Santa suit, labeling her as crazy. She returns to the scene of the crime, accompanied by her dad Lou (co-writer Flip Kobler), on the advice of her therapist. She needs closure if she wants to finally move on. Sure, like that\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Cindy isn\u2019t even back in town for a day when \u201cThe Mean One\u201d (Thornton, aka Art the Clown from the Terrifier movies) shows up and kills Dad. Once again, nobody believes her story. They think she\u2019s still crazy. The local sheriff (Baker) and town mayor (Schumacher) would rather just sweep it under the rug and pretend everything\u2019s okay. But it\u2019s not. The people of Newville stopped celebrating Christmas right after the incident with Cindy\u2019s mom. Since then, anybody who so much as hums a carol or pulls out a strand of tinsel meets a violent end. So yes, something is up and nobody wants to talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Cindy, wanting to face her demon head-on, takes it on herself to put an end to MO\u2019s reign of terror. She\u2019s helped by Burke Goldman (Mullins), the deputy who has a thing for her, and the town drunk Doc (Bigham) whose wife was killed by MO several years before. Together, they work to ensure evil dies tonight- i.e. Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I like the idea behind The Mean One<\/strong>, but the execution leaves something to be desired. It has a high body count (at least 20) and some neat kills (the bar massacre is pretty cool), but the gore is CGI which I find lazy. It might be easier and cheaper to do it that way, but it doesn\u2019t look right. When I see a horror flick, I want practical effects and stage blood in copious amounts. Most of all, I want it to look real. This is what\u2019s so great about 80s slasher movies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the most part, the acting is okay. Most of the cast members haven\u2019t starred in any big movies, mostly short films. The exception is Thornton whose Art the Clown has made him a new horror icon (the Christmas-themed Terrifier 3 is due out next year). He\u2019s good as the not-Grinch; he looks like an evil version of Jim Carrey\u2019s Grinch (now THAT\u2019S a terrifying Grinch movie!). Bigham is amusing as this film\u2019s Crazy Ralph character Doc whose last name is Zeus. Doc…. Zeus….. get it? Martin makes for a passable heroine, training like Ronda Rousey and disguising her guns as candy canes for her big showdown with MO.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While amateurish in parts, The Mean One<\/strong> is an amusingly warped Christmas movie on the level of such demented delights as Christmas Evil, Santa Claus vs. the Devil and Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman. It may not rate high in the character development department, but writers Flip and Finn Kobler deliver a few priceless lines like \u201cTime to roast this beast!\u201d and \u201cDahoo Dores, mother f***er!\u201d Yep, this is NOT your parents\u2019 or grandparents\u2019 Grinch (excuse me, not the Grinch). Please don\u2019t make the mistake of showing this to your kids, not unless you want to ruin the Grinch for them forever. I wouldn\u2019t call The Mean One<\/strong> a classic, but it\u2019s good for a few laughs when you\u2019re in a twisted state of mind.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mean One (2022)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Atlas Film Distribution\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated No MPAA rating (strong bloody violence and gore, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steven LaMorte\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Flip and Finn Kobler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Yael Benamour\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Christopher Sheffield\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 9, 2022 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Howard Thornton, Krystle Martin, Chase Mullins, John Bigham, Erik Baker, Flip Kobler, Amy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holiday-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-Mean-One-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7543"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7641,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7543\/revisions\/7641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}