HORROR MOVIE REVIEW: MEAN SPIRITED (2022)

While it won’t hold many surprises for fans of the genre who will recognise many of the tropes employed, it does take things in a slightly different direction than you might think.

MEAN SPIRITED (2022)

A failed YouTuber’s weekend in the Poconos turns into a nightmare when a demon joins the party. 

Directed by Jeff Ryan

Written by Joe Adams and Jeff Ryan

A Horror Movie Review by Mark Walker

**There are some minor plot spoilers in the following review.**

Mean-spirited opens with two teenage kids, Andy and Bryce (Will Madden and Jeff Ryan) pranking an old man for the sake of a cool, 'funny’ video. It doesn’t quite go according to plan for Bryce who is caught and dragged toward the old man’s house while Andy seems more inclined to continue filming than to save his friend. Bryce escapes, but this is the beginning of the end for the childhood best buddies.

Fast forward a decade or so and Bryce is now a successful actor, starring in Thunderman, a popular TV show that has made him rich and famous. Andy, on the other hand, is still living in his parents’ basement, peddling the same old schtick and desperately seeking fame through mean-spirited, click-bait, sensationalist online videos. It isn’t really working for him, although he would be the last person to admit this to anyone. Jealous and bitter at his old friend’s success he arranges for his rag tag bunch of friends to join him on a reunion trip to find out why, in Andy’s eyes, Bryce deserted them all so many years ago.

Andy plans to vlog the visit and upload his experiences to, hopefully, a shed load of new followers, trading off Bryce’s fame and popularity, although Andy is also hoping to take Bryce down a peg or two into the bargain. Like I said, Andy is bitter and, well, a little mean-spirited...


Andy and his crew drive to the Poconos in true horror movie style via a mini man, the obligatory pit-stop along the way to sightsee, and a brush with weird locals. When they arrive at Bryce’s impressive bachelor pad it is immediately obvious that Bryce is a new man; lean, fit, wealthy and pretty damn cool. Most of the crew appear impressed, but Andy remains bitter, his resolve to bring Bryce down strengthened by his old friend’s perfect life.

As the weekend progresses, the visitors notice some odd things about Bryce’s behaviour and his home. Anyone separated from the group begins to behave strangely, succumbing one-by-one until just Andy is left to try and figure out what is going on and defeat the evil that has gripped his friends. Will Andy win out and expose his old friend or will Bryce win his visitors over to his charmed lifestyle?
You know what you have to do if you want to find out!


Mean-Spirited is the third ‘found-footage’ film I have watched in the last couple of weeks and is another film that isn’t really ‘found-footage’ as it is likely the footage used here was never really lost. However, as expected with found-footage, the film is structured around the usual collection of tacked-together recordings that reconstruct the events of the film; I am just not sure how we are seeing this footage and who has cobbled it together? Once the credits roll, it is not clear who would want this ‘evidence’ out there to be honest. This will make more sense once you have watched the film but to say anything else would be a bit of a spoiler. It’s a small thing, however, and the use of all the vlog footage adds a bit more interest to the film as we get a variety of styles, formats, and perspectives throughout the movie.

Mean-Spirited explores issues around internet popularity and the lengths people will go to for fame, fortune and clicks. Both Andy and Bryce are seeking to better themselves but in quite different ways. While Andy is clinging to his youth though his sad attempts at being ‘cool,’ posting daft shit online, Bryce is clearly more prosperous, but may have employed slightly more sinister methods to achieve his success. Bryce appears to want to bring people along for the ride, while Andy feels the fastest way to success is to ridicule others and use them for his own gains. Although on the surface they are very different approaches, as the film progresses you will see that, ultimately, they really aren’t all that different. To be successful, you need to make sacrifices. What or who you chose to sacrifice along the way depends on the type of person you are.

The type of person Andy is, becomes clear very quickly; he is a dick. He is jealous and bitter towards his childhood friend, rude and ungrateful to his crew and really just focussed on himself. In most films of this type, Andy would be on a journey to learn the error of his ways and reflect on his life. He would learn to love himself and, as a consequence, those around him. In many ways he does, but Mean-Spirited takes Andy in a slightly different direction than you might think and, as a result, is a nice change from what I was expecting. Obviously, I am pushing the boundaries of how much I can say without giving the ending away but, Mean-Spirited managed a mild rug-pull!
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Andy being a massive dick, may make the ending harder for many to stomach, but the message is fairly clear and Mean Spirited points a fairly barbed finger at the image-obsessed internet generation who will do anything for fame, fortune and clicks. I am not suggesting that any of the current crop of influencers have sold their souls to a demon, but I do wonder if Mean-Spirited won’t give them ideas…
As a comedy, Mean-Spirited has some amusing moments. I won’t say I ever laughed out loud at any of them, but it made me smile in places. It utilises a good cast of characters to allow for plenty of conflict and comedy. The cast are all great and work well together, offering a good range of ‘stock’ characters for a film this type; there is a virgin, a geek, an alpha male, a jock, and a fool. No one feels ‘tacked-on’ or unnecessary and they all have a part to play. The fact that Andy is such a dick around them, does mean the viewer loses some empathy with him but, ultimately, this works to heighten your investment in whether or not Andy can save his friends from the darkness lurking around Bryce and his home as you are pushed into caring more about them than Andy himself.

As a horror, Mean Spirited isn’t particularly scary or bloody, but it does have its moments and the odd jump scare to keep you alert. Out of the three found-footage adjacent films I have recently reviewed for Ginger Nuts, Mean Spirited is the one I enjoyed the most. While it won’t hold many surprises for fans of the genre who will recognise many of the tropes employed, it does take things in a slightly different direction than you might think.


I want to talk more about redemption arcs, the ending of the film and the messages it sends the audience, but it is impossible to do so without giving away too much. Suffice to say, it wasn’t quite what I expected, but it stays true to the underlying themes of the movie. Just make sure you watch into the credits.

Ultimately, I had fun with Mean Spirited. It has the perfect run time of just over 90 minutes and, as Halloween approaches, it would make a great partner in a found-footage comedy double-bill with Deadstream, the second film in my recent trilogy of found-footage reviews for Ginger Nuts of Horror.

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