The Mean One has a great idea. What if The Grinch not only stole Christmas, but slaughtered everyone who celebrated it? We’ve had horror versions of children’s stories before (mostly fairy tales and shit), so why not The Grinch? I guess they were able to get away with the blatant copyright infringement (the costume and make-up are extremely close to the Jim Carrey version) by making this a horror-comedy, so it may (or may not) fall under fair use because it’s a parody. Like I said, the idea is great. The execution leaves a little something to be desired.
When she was a little girl, Cindy-You-Know-Who was visited by “The Mean One” (Art the Clown himself, David Howard Thornton) on Christmas Eve. Her mother, thinking it was attacking her child, began to beat the crap out of the creature. The Mean One killed her mother in self-defense, but the altercation caused its heart to become an empty hole. From then on out at Christmas, he would brutally murder anyone who dared to show any sign of holiday cheer. Twenty years later, the now-grown Cindy (Krystle Martin) returns to town to confront her childhood trauma. After The Mean One kills her dad, Cindy sets out for revenge.
I’m not going to lie. There’s a couple of chuckles here. The best moments are the ones that hew closest to the movie’s Grinchy inspiration and/or are in-jokes to the original. (The town drunk is named “Dr. Zeus”.) There were enough of these moments to fill a Grindhouse-style fake trailer, or perhaps even a twenty-minute short film. It just doesn’t cut it as a feature length movie. Sure, there are some funny bits, but the lulls in between them are long and frequent. There’s a good scene where The Mean One massacres a bunch of guys dressed like Santa in a diner. However, the flick needed one or two more scenes of this caliber (and a helluva lot less CGI blood) to really make it a winner.
It kind of reminded me of the first Leprechaun. It had a cool premise, and some funny lines, but the franchise really didn’t find its footing until they started making sequels. Maybe the makers of The Mean One will follow in the Leprechaun’s footprints. I wouldn’t say no to a sequel.
The reason is Thornton’s performance. He does another fine job buried under a bunch of make-up and an elaborate costume. He gives The Grin… er… Mean One a mischievous menace and does a helluva lot better job than Jim Carrey.
Martin is pretty good too. Not many actresses working today can wield a baseball bat wrapped in Christmas lights that makes lightsaber sounds and make it look plausible, but she is definitely one of them. She also gets the best line of the movie when she says, “Let’s roast this beast!”
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