Tricked out in Depp’s favored cartoonish makeup, though perhaps less of it than he’s used in the past to play younger and less gnarled characters, this Scrooge inhabits a fog-choked London that looks ready for a good haunting regardless of his miserly ways. As always, following a busy day of withholding money and cursing the very existence of Christmas cheer, Scrooge is visited by four spirits, one familiar to him and three representing Christmases Past (Andrea Riseborough), Present (Tramell Tillman), and Future (Robert Strange). Mostly these holiday visions involve Ebenezer himself, though some peek into the family life of his beleaguered employee Bob Cratchit (Rupert Grint), a victim of Scrooge’s skinflint cruelty. (Or is it fiscal conservatism? Ebenezer does flirt with equating Scrooge’s supposed deployment of facts and logic against his many enemies with modern Republican rhetoric, though only lightly.)
Perhaps aware of how efficiently the story has been retold by the Muppets, Mickey Mouse, and countless sitcoms, the filmmakers bring in some little-used material from the novel (Ebenezer’s sister, the mother of his nephew Fred, is an on-screen character, albeit a minor one), and smidges of additional backstory (Jacob Marley is not dead to begin with, played in the flesh as well as in ghostly chains by Ian McKellen), both intent on filling out a familiar lead character. But this is not, as the trailers and title hint, a retelling that somehow recontextualizes or revitalizes the story of Ebenezer Scrooge from a different angle. If anything, Ebenezer adheres closer to the book than many recent adaptations. (West even announces the story’s five “staves”—a Dickens designation of chapters named for the United Kingdom term for a musical staff—with onscreen text.)
The mild upside to this false advertising is that both Depp and the movie are less shticky than the trailers indicated. West seems understandably eager to exploit every bit of ghostly lore from Dickens, embellishing as necessary. Riseborough’s Ghost Of Christmas Past becomes a spooky, white-eyed maiden; Scrooge is frightened into submission by a passel of additional, moaning spirits roaming the London streets; a crow perpetually caws nearby. Fittingly, given West’s recent era-hopping trilogy, Ebenezer draws on low-budget but effective ’60s gothic horror, adds some ’70s-ish intensity (with a credits font to match), and even nods at ’80s slashers when Scrooge is swallowed up by his bed, just like Depp’s character in the original Nightmare On Elm Street. (No geyser of blood follows, sadly.) The blend of practical and digital effects is uncommonly strong, and in terms of Tim Burton impressions, the movie hews closer to the painterly, Hammer-like craft of Sleepy Hollow than the zig-zagging tones of Dark Shadows.
Depp’s sincerity, however, still comes flavored with dinner-theater ham; it’s the kind of ostentatious ego trip that might be expected of a seasonal one-man show, minus the thrill of live performance or the humility of regional bookings. Moreover, as much as some fans will be happy to forget (or simply deny) anything unseemly about Depp’s recent past, it’s difficult to avoid the fact that literature’s most familiar change of heart has been brought to life by a performer whose public persona of late has been a kind of louche defiance. If past Depp performances could be accused of actorly self-indulgence redeemed by high-wire charisma, there’s something less charmingly phony about him performing an old-saw redemption act with the obvious expectation of audience embrace. There’s no thrill, illicit or otherwise, to Depp’s mild, nattering eccentricities here.
It’s Tramell Tillman who actually serves the film’s best ham, playing the Ghost Of Christmas Present with a darker, more irritable form of appetite than more typically gregarious versions. He’s one of the only actors who makes a real attempt to actually square off with Depp while embracing West’s bag of horror tricks. The rest of the cast is caught between the hacky familiarity of the movie’s Scrooge and its more entertaining gothic trimmings. (Maybe there’s also just something inherently off-balance about a movie that affords Rupert Grint a larger role than Daisy Ridley.) West’s best horror movies have felt character-driven, while this horror-tinged dramatic fantasy is mostly populated with flat recreations. That’s the most succinct contradiction Ebenezer can offer: It’s named for its own star-driven undoing.
Director: Ti West
Writer: Nathaniel Halpern
Starring: Johnny Depp, Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Tramell Tillman, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley
Release Date: November 13, 2026
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