In the sleepy mountain town of Newville, little Cindy watches in horror as her mother falls victim to a green monster in a Santa costume. Skip forward two decades and Cindy (Krystle Martin) is back in town, all jacked up and ready to hunt down the so-called 'mean one' after he shows up again to off her father. Along the way there's some drama about a corrupt Mayor overseeing a cover-up of the Mean One's other kills that will intersect with Cindy's revenge arc. So goes "The Mean One", a Christmas horror that turned the Grinch into a bloodthirsty slasher before "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" was even a twinkle in an opportunistic filmmaker's eye. Alas, it's not much better than the Pooh movie with its CGI kills, choppy editing and dubious acting performances. David Howard Thornton may have turned Art the Clown of the "Terrifier" movies into a cult figure, but he had his hands tied playing the equally mute Mean One in a movie with less budget and less delirious excess. Take away the trimmings and this is run-of-the-mill budget horror, not nearly as bad as some, but as mediocre as it is pointless.
