Ebenezer (2026) Review

The trouble with adapting A Christmas Carol isn’t that everybody knows the story. The problem is that everybody has an idea of how the story is supposed to feel.

Snow. Candlelight. Regret. Redemption. A turkey at the end.

But add to that the musical and lighter, near comedic adaptations over the years, and you have a story which is very personal to many – and that always divides opinion when a new interpretation hits the screens.

Ti West’s Ebenezer understands that familiarity is the enemy, so instead of trying to make Dickens cosy again, it turns the whole thing back into a ghost story. And Considering Charles Dickens published the original tale (A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas) as a ‘chilling yet redemptive winter ghost story’, this might just be the most faithful adaptation to celluloid yet.

Johnny Depp plays Scrooge as a contorted, heavily weathered grotesque, miserly old businessman who seems to have curdled in his own skin. He sits in the gloom counting money, dismissing charity, berating Bob Cratchit and sneering at Christmas with the practised contempt of someone who has spent years making bitterness a core part of his personality.

His business partner Jacob Marley is much the same, but after leaving his mortal coil, feels duty-bound to return to Ebenezer one cold Christmas Eve in an attempt to help his old colleague avoid an eternity of purgatory.

Ian McKellen’s appearance gives the film the theatrical jolt it needs. His chains rattle and warnings are delivered with enough gravity to make the familiar speech land again. From there, Scrooge is predictably handed over to the three spirits and the film settles into the structure everyone knows.

West’s smartest move is refusing to fight that structure. There are no desperate attempts to reinvent the plot or wedge in modern commentary. The changes are tonal. The rooms are darker. The ghosts are stranger. Their visits feel all the more punitive.

Andrea Riseborough’s Ghost of Christmas Past is striking to behold. Pale, white-eyed and deeply uncanny, she has the appearance of something that has wandered in from a more unsettling film entirely. There is curiosity in the performance, but very little warmth, and that makes Scrooge’s trip through his own history feel truly invasive.

Tramell Tillman’s Ghost of Christmas Present is earthier and more abrasive, bringing a rougher energy to the middle section. The film works best when these spirits feel like forces Scrooge has no control over rather than kindly guides steering him towards a happy ending.

Depp commits fully to that idea.

There is plenty of eccentricity in the performance, naturally, and at times you can see the familiar Depp machinery working beneath the prosthetics. But he also finds something more gradual in Scrooge’s change of heart – a thaw doesn’t happen all at once.

It’s a brave, yet refreshing direction given that one might assume (and the promotion ahead of the release may not have helped), that this would be yet another amusing, Jack Sparrow-esque turn for this acclaimed actor. Instead, Depp takes on the role with all the sincerity of an actor looking for his own vindication. And he succeeds. That makes Ebenezer’s final transformation feel earned rather than flipped like a switch.

Visually, Ebenezer is handsome, though not always as convincing as it wants to be. As ever, West nails the characteristics of the period, reaching for Gothic grandeur, filling the film with candlelit interiors, wintry streets and supernatural imagery. Some of it is beautiful. Some of the digital effects are less persuasive, particularly when the Del Toro-esque diffuse ghosts should feel tangible and instead look slightly too polished.

The supporting cast is impressive but unevenly served. Rupert Grint’s Bob Cratchit feels genuine, but underwritten, while Sam Claflin and Daisy Ridley have little room to leave much impression. McKellen, by contrast, makes every minute count.

That imbalance may keep Ebenezer from becoming an Oscar-worthy version of Dickens’s tale. But perhaps that’s asking too much.

What West has made isn’t a replacement for the warmer adaptations people revisit every December, even though it does take inspiration from the 1984 made-for-TV version of the tale. Instead, it is a darker companion piece, one that remembers the word “ghost” is right there in Dickens’ original subtitle.

Not everything connects, and the film occasionally confuses gloom with depth. But when it works, it finds something genuinely eerie and engaging inside a story we thought had been diluted by repetition. After nearly two centuries, that is no small achievement.

Ebenezer leaves audiences with plenty to reflect on as Christmas draws near, it’s also easily the most enjoyable festive release in cinemas this year.

Movie Rating:

Ebenezer trailer