The Mean One (2022) review – A festive slasher trudge that stole the fun

Welcome to Knockout Horror. We have another entry into our Festive Frights feature today. We are taking a look at The Mean One from 2022. For the rest of this month, we are covering nothing but Christmas-themed horror. If you are looking for more, why not check out our Awful Advent category for all of our Christmas reviews from the past few years? There’s tons to look at, so don’t be shy.

A Brilliant Concept – Poor Execution

My fiancée told me about this movie and I was way more excited about it than I should be. Following the story of a young woman returning to the town where her mother was murdered by a mysterious festive monster. The Mean One sees Cindy (Krystle Martin) attempting to overcome her tragic past and defeat the monster who ruined her childhood.

“It feels like a massive missed opportunity… the decent makeup work actually makes him look a little too much like the version from the Jim Carrey movie, robbing the character of any sense of horror.”

The Mean One is basically a comedy-horror movie parody of The Grinch. David Howard Thornton, whom you may know as Terrifier‘s Art the Clown, plays the Christmas-hating, miserable green bastard in what can best be described as an adult imitation of Jim Carrey’s portrayal from the hit kids’ film. After murdering our protagonist’s mother. He now appears whenever anyone in Newville celebrates Christmas, killing them in a variety of festively inspired ways.

I don’t know why, but I thought that this could work very well. Let’s be honest, the Grinch is pretty scary. The fact that he engages in grotesque displays of breaking and entering to steal Christmas trees just makes him all the more intimidating. It’s also hinted at that he has super strength and a very bad temper. Surely the story is perfect for adapting into a horror?

All you need to do is get the humour right! Lean into the cheesiness a bit, and make sure the gore and kills work well. It’s difficult to miss, really, right? This one almost writes itself.

Dammit, this could have been a lot of fun

Boy was I mistaken; this movie is awful. It feels utterly cheap! The kills are uninventive and not all that well done, the story is poor, and the camerawork is some of the worst I have seen in years. Seriously, it constantly shakes about spasmodically and makes the action incredibly difficult to follow. This is a very ugly film.

“This movie is awful. It feels utterly cheap! The kills are uninventive and the camerawork is some of the worst I have seen in years. This is a very ugly film.”

For some reason, director Steven LaMorte decided to make The Mean One character a completely mute monster instead of a wisecracking horror Grinch. He’s an animalistic killer hell-bent on murdering anyone who engages in any kind of festive fun for reasons that are completely unknown until the final scenes of the film.

It feels like a massive missed opportunity to add some laughs. That doesn’t mean that the movie doesn’t earn a chuckle here and there, though. They are just not that frequent. Characters are fairly bland and difficult to invest in. There is a distinct mix of overacting and underacting, and the whole movie feels far too long.

There just isn’t a whole lot to grab onto, and the runtime can feel like a real chore. It doesn’t help that the Grinch character doesn’t feel very intimidating. There’s never any reason to invest in him as a threat, and the decent makeup work actually makes him look a little too much like the version from the Jim Carrey movie, robbing the character of any sense of horror.

Is it so bad that it’s good? Not really!

I think there is some potential for “So Bad It’s Good” laughs here, but it’s no cult classic. The concept alone affords the movie some leeway when it comes to quality. Some of the scenes are so ridiculous that they do provoke a laugh, even if you will feel guilty about it afterward. Especially the attempts to avoid referring to the creature as The Grinch.

“If you are looking for a movie to watch for a ‘so bad it’s good’ movie night, the concept alone makes this one worth checking out. Other than that, though, just skip it.”

There are some comic moments playing around with the character’s lore that work quite well, and David Thornton does a great job in a very impressive physical performance as The Mean One.

You just need to have your expectations properly aligned. Grab some snacks and a few drinks. Try not to take it seriously and you might have an okay time. With that being said, the ending lets the film down on all fronts, even as a “so bad it’s good” film. It is just so ridiculous that it kind of undermines everything that came before. An argument could be made that The Mean One is a little too dull to actually entertain fans of bad horror, but it’s worth a shot for a bad movie night.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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