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| “ | All of us down in Newville like Christmas a lot. But... that thing that lives just North of Newville, does not. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Zeus, describing the Mean One. |
| “ | GO! | „ |
| ~ The Mean One's only line in the film. |
The Mean One, also known as The Grinch, is the titular main antagonist of the 2022 Christmas-themed horror slasher film of the same name.
A more gruesome play on the original Grinch story, the Mean One is a bloodthirsty murderer who still has the same hatred for Christmas, this time murdering anybody who even shows signs of liking Christmas.
He is portrayed by David Howard Thornton, who also portrayed Art the Clown in Terrifier and Screamboat Willie in Screamboat.
Appearance[]
His design looks very similar to Jim Carrey's version, however with different features. His skin and fur is a dark green, he has red eye pupils with black shadows, sharp claws and his Santa costume is dirty with tears and patches, as well as stains of blood in the white faux-fur trim of his coat. Oddly enough, the white faux-fur trim of his hat remains completely bloodless and almost clean despite the rest of his outfit being ruined, battered and blood-soaked, as if he didn't want to ruin his cap.
In the final flashback, he seems to look like the original green Grinch as portrayed by Jim Carrey in the year 2000, but when accidentally slaying Cindy's mother, and subsequently called a monster by Cindy, his skin and fur color changes, a result shown to be because of his heart becoming smaller. Had this incident not taken place, the story would most likely have played out in an identical fashion to the book and 2000 film.
Personality[]
The Mean One still retains the original personality of the original Grinch. However, he received a more gruesome makeover, as the Mean One, unlike The Grinch, has a homicidal taste for blood (this only shows itself for people who like Christmas, and the mayor and her assistants, because of their involvement in all of this). As well, this version of The Grinch only ever speaks a single word in the entire film, a stark contrast to the previous three Grinches, who have been quite talkative. In fact, the version of the character this film draws inspiration from, the 2000 live-action version, may have been the most talkative Grinch of all, yet his return in this horror parody remake has no interest in monologues or witty conversation, instead communicating with nods and physical movements akin to a silent film-era cartoon character. Many people liken this aspect of his personality to Art The Clown, another popular character played by Mean One actor David Howard Thornton.
Biography[]
While everyone in the town of Newville liked Christmas, this thing doesn't. It has a name, and from what we can tell, it starts with a "G," but nobody says the name, opting to simply call this creature "The Mean One." Our story starts with him stealing Christmas from the You-Know-Who family where the daughter Cindy finds him and asks why but he just pats her on the head and waves her off. She responds by giving him her necklace. However, her mother comes down and sees them. Feeling worried for her daughter, she starts attacking him but he fights back and she ends up killed when she falls on a nail, impaling her neck. An angry Cindy calls the Mean One a "monster," and he responds by growling at her. Evidently, his heart shrinks further in this moment, an element of the character that in the past was established to affect his mental and emotional health immensely. However, he got away and Cindy gave a description of him in a drawing but Sheriff Hooper doesn't find it as a reliable description.
20 years later, the Mean One is still active and a now adult Cindy returns to the town with her dad but the town starts banning Christmas decorations in order to not attract him. However, Cindy experiences nightmares from that dreadful night and one night, she and her father are preparing for Christmas until she's locked out of the house and forced to watch as the Mean One murders her father.
The next day, she wakes up in a hospital and tries explaining what happened but Sheriff Hooper and Mayor McBean ignored her explanation and the latter seems to only care about her election than a Christmas killer. However, Officer Burke believes her and wants to help her.
On the snowy mountains, Cindy takes pictures of it but then finds a discarded wallet belonging to Walter Mulberry and later saves a hitchhiker from the Mean One but the hitchhiker is unable to describe the attacker due to blacking out. Cindy then puts up flyers but McBean tears them down. Burke decides to help Cindy by later searching up Walter Mulberry, but finds out that he's missing.
At a bar, the Mean One then finds a group of Christmas travelers and traps the bartender in the freezer after killing a member of the group. He then locks the door to the bar and takes out a giant candy cane. At first, the group finds him entertaining but then gets scared when he kills one of them after he comes out of the bathroom. They try to escape but he manages to massacre them before destroying a gingerbread house. The bartender finally gets out but it is too late. She is the only survivor. She is unable to describe the attacker due to being in shock. Cindy still wants to help, but Sheriff Hooper tells her to either go home or come with him.
At Cindy's house, she watches the news about the bar massacre, but then her power gets turned off. As she starts toward turning it on, the Mean One appears and tries to attack her but she is able to close the door in time to hide. When she hears him coming, she attacks but then finds out it's just a harmless old man named Dr. Zeuss, who mostly goes by "Doc." He scared off the attacker before inviting Cindy for a drink.
At the Horton's, Dr. Zeuss reveals that he has to keep an eye on her and knew that when she came back into town, the Mean One would be back. He expresses sympathy towards her for the death of her parents and gives her an accurate description of the attacker. He introduces the killer as a bloodthirsty creature that hates Christmas and goes by a lot of names but mostly calls him the Mean One. He then explains that the reason why Newville can't celebrate Christmas and that his wife was killed by the Mean One 11 years ago, publicly. While she was carrying gifts to send out of Newville to her family members outside of town, the Mean One rapidly ran in and literally ripped Mrs. Zeuss in half, leaving her remains on the side of the road by the mailbox. He also explains that the Mean One's heart is an empty hole. Cindy offers to have Dr. Zeuss' statement be given to the sheriff.
At the sheriff department, they make the statement but Hooper brushes them off due to Dr. Zeuss being an alcoholic and is reaching a limit with Cindy but Burke believes them. Cindy starts to get angry at him and Sheriff Hooper claims that he's protecting this town before angrily telling Cindy to leave. Burke sadly tells Cindy that they have no jurisdiction out there but he can head up to the mountain.
At the mountain, Officer Burke investigates a cave in the mountains and finds a decomposed corpse. Upon getting scared by it, he accidentally activates a stuffed toy reindeer that plays Christmas music. As he tries to turn it off, he hears the Mean One coming and decides to hide. He is dragging a dead body into his cave but finds the decomposed corpse uncovered. Burke then accidentally steps on the toy but then manages to throw it away to distract the Mean One. As the Mean One destroys the toy, he starts getting Burke's scent and searches for him but Burke manages to get away and accidentally attacks Doc, who came with a gun. Doc then advises Burke to lock himself in his home and not do anything Christmas related.
At Cindy's home, Burke shows Cindy the wallets and agrees that something's going on here.
The next day, Cindy then starts training and building materials needed to take down the Mean One while Burke starts searching for clues on the Mean One and finds a lot of posters of missing people, who are all hikers.
At a bar, Doc then mournfully kisses a picture of him and his wife before drinking away his sorrows but is then arrested by Hooper for having guns without a permit. Meanwhile at the Egg Heaven, the manager Don is mutilated with a meat hatchet by the Mean One and his body parts are put in a delivery box he got.
The next day, McBean plans to leave town and Sheriff Hooper confronts her over it. She claims to be going to Tahoe to see her sister until New Years but Hooper doesn't care for that, believing she's only avoiding The Mean One, and wonders if McBean did anything that would "bite him in the a**". McBean responds by asking who's looking and when being told that there's trained eyes, she wants him to look elsewhere and he's opened to suggestions. She states that as the current mayor, she's not his deputy anymore and that she can't do his job too, to which he angrily responds by claiming everything's changed and pointed out the hikers, the diner, Doc, and now Cindy before telling her that the truth will soon see the light of day, indirectly revealing that they might know about the Mean One the whole time but are covering it up. McBean remorselessly tells him since the night is short, he better extend the night and that if she burns, she's pulling him into the fire. She then leaves.
At Cindy's house, Cindy is wondering about the Mean One before Burke arrives and reveals that he found something about the hikers. They went hiking in the mountains and went missing during Christmas where the Mean One is seen in the background of every photo that was taken. It's then revealed that the mountains were reserved for hikers and the one who gave them the reservations is Mayor McBean, revealing that she has been luring them to their deaths. Burke put out word to highway patrol to probably search for her. However, Cindy's only concern is the Mean One.
On the road, McBean's car breaks down in the middle of the road and starts playing music. She unsuccessfully tries to stop the music and goes out to check on her engine but is then attacked by the Mean One, who bites her cheek off. He then knocks her to the ground and drags her to her trunk. He then slams the trunk door on her neck several times until her head falls off, killing the corrupt mayor and indirectly avenging the lives that she sacrificed. Her severed head is then seen with her election sticker on the lips while her headless body is dragged away.
At the Sheriff's department, Burke confronts Hooper and the latter finally confesses that he didn't go with McBean's idea at first but after seeing the Mean One murdering a girl named Stephanie and unsuccessfully feeding him animals, he realized that the Mean One is only interested in killing humans and ended up going along with McBean's idea to sacrifice random people, revealing that they not only gaslighted Cindy into thinking she was insane but they also had Cindy's parents and Doc's wife killed. Burke is angry at him for this and Hooper tries to claim that he only took an oath to protect the town and his people but doesn't see the random victims as his people and thinks that he's only saving lives. However, Burke and Doc are angered and disgusted by this because of how many innocent lives were killed and Burke decided to go kill the Mean One so Cindy won't get killed, much to the protests of Doc and Hooper. However, Hooper does give Doc the keys to his cell.
At Cindy's house, Doc visits her but steps in her snare. However, Doc decides to warn her about Burke going to confront the Mean One. Cindy then cuts Doc down and they go to save Burke.
At the cave, Burke starts searching for The Mean One and takes out a gun to shoot him. He then tries luring the Mean One out by singing Christmas songs until he hears him. However, he falls in a trap and gets his foot caught in a bear trap. As he's trying to get free and also trying to get his gun, he then sees the Mean One holding a mistletoe and mockingly making kissy faces. However, he is saved by a redeemed Hooper, who shoots the Mean One to scare him off. He then gets Burke out of the trap and decides to stay behind to right the wrongs that he did. As Cindy and Doc pick up Burke, Hooper sacrifices himself to the Mean One, who kills him. The others hear the noise and Cindy finds Hooper's severed arm. Cindy blames herself for all that's happening and decides to end the Mean One's killing spree once and for all as Burke is taken to the hospital.
At Cindy's house, she decides to lure him with Christmas lights and songs. She then pretends to sleep on the couch as the Mean One breaks inside the house via the chimney and prepares to kill her but she wakes up in time to kick him off and Doc helps her out by shooting at him. Cindy prepares to kill him with a shotgun but he's suddenly gone. As they are searching for him, the Mean One suddenly appears and attacks Doc but Cindy saves him. After Cindy checks to make sure that Doc is okay, she then continues her hunt for the Mean One until he attacks her and they start fighting. She tries shooting at him until he falls into a bear trap but that doesn't affect him. Cindy then picks up a baseball bat covered with Christmas lights and attacks him with it until he fights back and she is forced to run away while distracting him with ornament grenades. As she goes back inside her house, she finds him inside her house and he starts assaulting her with his claws until Doc stuns him with loud noises from the police car and Cindy incapacitates him with an explosive trap.
Too injured from the explosion to fight, Cindy prepares to end him, but she sees that he kept her necklace and asked him the same question she asked him the night that he started stealing Christmas from her during her childhood. In a series of flashbacks, it is revealed that her mother's death was actually unintentional and the Mean One was horrified by what he did. He only became a monster when Cindy called him one, causing his heart to shrink. Realizing that he wasn't always a monster, she kisses his cheek and forgives him for what he did. This causes his heart to grow three times its normal size, but his heart starts growing way too large and as he shouts "GO!" Cindy steps back as his heart explodes from over expansion, killing him instantly.
After his death, he has become a famous urban legend across the world due to a photo of him and is attracting a lot of people to Newville to look for him. As the town of Newville celebrates Christmas again, Cindy and Burke enter a relationship, and Doc stops drinking. However, the narrator claims that the happily ever after will most likely last until next year. As the screen fades to black, the Mean One is heard bellowing, indicating that he either survived the heart explosion, or there’s more than one out there.
In the mid-credits scene, a female streamer is excited about opening her box of Christmas supplies that had been delayed but it turns out to be the box from the Egg Heaven and when she opens it, she finds the owner's remains and screams in horror.
Trivia[]
- The fate of this Grinch is a complete twist of the original. In Dr. Seuss’s story, the Grinch’s heart grows three sizes because he realizes that Christmas is not about gifts, but about being together with one’s family for the holidays. After realizing this, the Grinch changes his ways and becomes a good character. In this film, the Mean One doesn't know the true meaning of Christmas, and redeems himself through Cindy's forgiveness. As a result, much like Jim Carrey's Grinch, he looks horrified when his heart grows far too large, and unlike the other Grinches, this event results in his heart literally bursting out of his chest, causing his possible death.
- Due to Copyright, the Mean One was never referred to as the Grinch or Mr. Grinch. Characters would attempt to say Mr. Grinch, but would be interrupted halfway through the name. One well-known example of this running joke is Dr. Zeuss and the bartender. Zeuss almost says "He's smart, he's SO DAMN SMART! He's a MEAN ONE, that Mr. Gri--", The bartender interrupts with "FINCH! LAST CALL FOR MIKE FINCH!" Later, Cindy You-Know-Who says "You're a DEAD one, Mr. Gri--", and The Mean One interrupts with a roar and an attack.
- The Mean One's name is a play on the well-known song about the Grinch, titled "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch," also commonly known as simply "Mr. Grinch."
- This was the first feature length live-action Grinch movie that's not made by Universal, as well as not being catered towards children. It follows the once-popular trend of making an R-rated product out of a children's property to continue entertaining the now-grown people they used to entertain as children, another example being The Banana Splits Movie.
- It is unknown if Max exists in The Mean One's universe. He most likely would be dead by the time of The Mean One's story, as The Grinch of this movie tried stealing Christmas 20 years ago to the day, when Max would have already been an adult dog serving as The Grinch's trick reindeer. Dogs typically have a lifespan of under 20 years, so if Max is still alive, as sad as it sounds, it's true that he wouldn't be doing well at all. He would be a severely elderly, partially crippled, neglected old dog living in a cave with an abusive green monster, probably dying of old age and mistreatment and still thinking of how one day things will get better, even though he most likely has very few days left in this world. It doesn't bring joy to present this fact, as Max is a beloved Christmas character and at times even overshadows his master's story, but unfortunately, considering this story is set in a realistic city in Earth's American Midwest, with no Whoville magic to speak of in sight, there would be no other answer to this question. Perhaps, and hopefully so, we may see a sequel one day where Max is presented as a two-month-old puppy who gets rescued in the end, as it is clear that nobody wishes ill of Max as a character.
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