The upcoming horror film will depict the beloved Dr Seuss character as a homicidal maniac hellbent on ruining Christmas by doing more than playing a few pranks.

The synopsis for the film reads: "The Mean One is a hairy, green-skinned grump in a Santa suit, living on a mountain high above the town of Newville, despising the holiday season.

"Young Cindy You-Know-Who, whose parents were butchered by the Mean One 20 Christmases earlier, is returning to town to seek closure... but when the Mean One launches a new reign of terror that threatens to destroy Christmas, Cindy finds a bold new purpose – trapping and killing the monster."

The Grinch is being played by David Howard Thornton who is best known for his role in Terrifer as Art the Clown.

The Mean One will also star Krystle Martin, Chase Mullins, Amy Schumacher and John Bigham.

The Grinch in The Mean One. (XYZ Films)

A horror take on the Grinch follows a number of other scary twists on beloved children's characters that are no longer bound by copyright laws including Winnie the Pooh and Bambi.

When Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was unveiled earlier this year, images from the film, which depicted Pooh and Piglet as rabid killers, went viral on the internet.

Jim Carrey as the Grinch. (Alamy)

The most famous adaptation of the Grinch came in 2000 when Jim Carrey starred in How the Grinch Stole Christmas which became one of the highest grossing films of the year and won an Oscar for Best Makeup.

The most recent adaptation was 2018's The Grinch which was CGI animated and also a commercial success.

The Mean One will reportedly be free to watch when it is released in the UK on 15 December.