The Grinch makes his return this festive season, but not in the way you remember him.
The original story of The Grinch, saw the low-spirited character grow increasingly irritable over the festive cheer engulfing the small town of Whoville, causing him to team up with his dog on a mission to ruin the Christmas spirit that has spread amongst the residents. The original 1957 book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss has been turned into various film and theatre productions, perhaps the most notable is the 2000 movie under the same name, narrated by Sir Anthony Hopkins and stars Jim Carrey.
Fast forward to the year 2022 and now we have an alternative take on the children’s movie as it has now been turned into a sinister parody slasher horror film.
The parody movie aptly titled The Mean One (David Howard-Thornton) sees a hairy, green-skinned grump in a Santa suit, living on a mountain high above the town of Newville, despising the holiday season.
As with the classic story, the people who live in Newville are all scared stiff of ‘The Mean One’, and the story focuses on the return of Cindy You-Know-Who (Krystle Martin) to the town, where she hopes to heal her past, after her parents were killed by The Mean One twenty years ago.
Chase Mullins, Amy Schumacher. and John Bigham also appear in supporting roles.
One Christmas Eve, in a sleepy mountain town, Cindy’s mother is killed and her Christmas stolen by the Mean One, a bloodthirsty green grouch in a red Santa suit. 20 years later, Cindy returns to Newville, where the monster launches another bloody reign of terror that threatens to destroy Christmas. Now Cindy’s got a bold new purpose: trapping and killing The Mean One.
The announcement of the film earlier this year created an online buzz and is the latest in the trend of classic childhood characters being turned into nightmare horror films, such as Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey that was released earlier in the year.
The Mean One will be released on 9 December (US) in theaters / 15 December (UK) and will be available to stream for free.