The Grinch Is Ready To Haunt Your Dreams In Terrifying Trailer For The Mean One

The official trailer for "The Mean One" has dropped and it is far from your average Grinch movie. The film is loosely based on the Dr. Seuss character the Grinch from the classic 1957 book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" But, instead of mistletoe, wreaths, and gifts, "The Mean One" is full of blood, baseball bats, and revenge. 

Like the original, the Grinch lives high atop a crooked mountain and looks down on a town of people that he absolutely despises, but most of the similarities end there and make way for several clever homages to the classic tale. The Christmas-slasher film stars David Howard Thornton as the Grinch, who is no stranger to horror films himself, playing a homicidal clown in "Terrifier" and "Terrifier 2." 

Taking place decades after the original story of the Grinch, "The Mean One" follows the character Cindy You-Know-Who (Krystle Martin) as she returns to her hometown 20 years after she first encountered the green maniac. But when she recounts the night that the Grinch stole Christmas, it isn't anything like you remember.

"The Mean One" takes the original story and flips it completely upside down. Remember how the Grinch stole Christmas from that little girl named Cindy Who? Well, in this version of the tale, things got much darker because the Grinch also murdered her parents on that cold Christmas Eve night. 

Now Cindy You-Know-Who, as she's call her in the trailer, is headed back to her hometown of Newville and she is out to get revenge on the one the townsfolk call "The Mean One." The trailer is ripe with references to the original tale, some quite obvious like Cindy's character, and others a bit more clever like changing the name of Whoville to Newville. And while this imagining of the Grinch actually looks a little bit like Jim Carrey's version from the 2000 film "How The Grinch Stole Christmas," there is likely no redemption for the iconic Dr. Seuss character in this one.

An interesting side note to the film is that it is co-written by Flip Kobler, who is best known for writing animated Disney sequels like "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride" and "Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World," two movies that are practically polar opposites to "The Mean One." And even though this movie might not be for everyone, its a great way to enjoy a wildly bloody take on a Christmas classic just before the holidays. "The Mean One" will have a limited theatrical release on Thursday, December 15.