The Grinch Is Becoming A Violent Horror Movie
The Mean One is a Grinch-inspired Christmas slasher film.
As if it wasn’t enough that Winnie the Pooh was getting his own horror twist in the much talked about Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, it’s been announced that another beloved character from our childhoods will be slashing onto screens everywhere this Christmas. According to MovieWeb, The Grinch is preparing to pick up an ax and several other weapons and go into full roast beast mode on Whoville in The Mean One. That’s right, instead of his heart growing three sizes, he’ll be ripping out hearts left and right in the new flick.
David Howard Thornton stars as the titular character, and similar to his Grinch counterpart, he lives on an isolated mountain-top above the town of Newville. Just like the original telling, The Mean One despises Christmas and has built up quite a reputation, although this time it’s not just because of stealing presents and holiday joy. Case in point is our protagonist, Young Cindy You-Know-Who (Krystle Martin), whose parents were slaughtered 20 Christmases ago by none other than The Mean One.
As the holiday season rolls around, The Mean One’s path crosses with Cindy as she returns to her hometown in hopes of closing the traumatizing chapter of her past. Little does she know that she and the rest of the residents of Newville are being watched as The Mean One plans his next bloody attack on the town. With puns abounding, The Mean One promises to take favorite moments and memories from the Grinch and make them violent and gore-filled.
To be fair, the story of the Grinch has always been terrifying – at least in the live-action sense. Of course, there’s the pleasant and nostalgic Christmas classic 1966 animated TV special led by the voice of Boris Karloff, but when the story went into live-action form, things got a little freaky. This may be a controversial opinion, but the Jim Carrey-led take on the story was the stuff of nightmares, with Carrey’s Grinch sure to send a chill down your spine – just us?
The Mean One is coming in hot on the heels of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which saw its titular character in a bloodthirsty role that we never could have previously imagined. Like The Mean One borrows its base from the Grinch, Blood and Honey also brought many of its characters back, but with a slasher twist. The story follows Christopher Robin leaving the Hundred Acre Wood and therefore cutting off Pooh and his pals from a proper food source.
Over time, Pooh and Piglet become desperate and begin to slaughter other creatures living in the forest, including the saddest of them all – Eeyore. When Christopher returns with his wife years later, he finds that nothing is how he left it and soon becomes the target of Piglet and Pooh’s bloodthirsty appetites. The images now burned into our minds of the horrifying versions of the once-animated characters will certainly be on par with the Grinch’s makeover as The Mean One.
Now that the door has been opened and family favorite characters are turning ghoulish, everyone is fair game. With Blood and Honey being such a big hit, it’s no shock that the already slightly sinister Grinch would make for an excellent horror crossover. The Mean One is due out on December 15.
