‘Ebenezer’ Review: Johnny Depp Gets a Creepily Effective Comeback Vehicle in Ti West’s Horror-Tinged Take on Dickens’ Yuletide Classic

Did the world need another cinematic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol? Not really, considering the myriad versions that have appeared over the years, which play with regularity on television screens every holiday season. But Johnny Depp really needed a comeback vehicle, and he’s found an effective one in Ti West’s horror-tinged adaptation that allows the actor to deliver the sort of quirky theatrical performance for which he became famous. While Ebenezer doesn’t break any new ground, other than possibly being the first version of the story not really suitable for young children, it fulfills its ostensible goal of restoring the actor to A-list status.

Considering that the director’s oeuvre consists of such films as The House of the Devil, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, and the recent acclaimed X trilogy, it’s not surprising that this version of the Yuletide tale features a dark Gothic tone. Indeed, Ebenezer feels essentially like a horror film for most of its running time, featuring jump scares, grotesque visuals, and enough ghostly creatures to fuel a season of American Horror Story. It’s no wonder a terrified Scrooge pees himself at one point.

Ebenezer

The Bottom Line Gets the ghostly job done.

Release date: Friday, November 13
Cast: Johnny Depp, Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley, Arthur Conti, Ellie Bamber, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Charlie Murphy, Tramell Tillman, Ian McKellen
Director: Ti West
Screenwriter: Nathaniel Halpern
Rated PG-13, 1 hour 56 minutes

Still, plenty of care has been taken for the movie, which features handsome visuals, excellent production design, and a stacked cast including Ian McKellen as Scrooge’s business partner Jacob Marley. Nathaniel Halpern’s screenplay expands upon the tale by providing more backstory than usual, with Marley still alive in the pre-credits prologue and demonstrating that he was just as irascible and nasty as Scrooge.

Cut to seven years later, when Scrooge is at his most Scrooge-like, uttering enough humbugs to satisfy those Dickens fans. (Another nod to them is that the film is divided into “staves,” as was the author’s novella.)

Soon enough, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former partner, who, besides carrying those infernal chains, looks decidedly worse for wear. Marley warns him that he’ll soon be visited by three ghosts who will … wait, why am I relating the story? You already know it.

First, of course, is the Ghost of Christmas Past, played by a wispy Andrea Riseborough made up to look like a corpse that’s been left out in the sun. She brings Scrooge back to his early days, when his younger self (Arthur Conti, Carrie) was in love with his fiancée Belle (Ellie Bamber), whom he subsequently lost due to his misplaced priorities. Then there’s the Ghost of Christmas Present, a surly figure played by Tramell Tillman (Severance), who physically decays as the visit wears on, eventually revealing horrific creatures trapped in his body. Finally, there’s the Ghost of Christmas Future (the appropriately named Robert Strange), an otherworldly apparition who introduces himself by having a crow fly out of his mouth.

Interspersed with all the creepiness, which includes numerous rampaging ghosts behaving like zombies, are some moments of genuine emotion. Depp provides moving glimpses into Scrooge’s underlying humanity, from his missing his deceased partner to his anguish over having lost Belle to his pity for Tiny Tim (Freddie Lee-Grey), his employee Bob Cratchit’s (Rupert Grint) disabled son.

Indeed, it’s when the film lets up on the frights and allows the story to breathe that it becomes most effective. The final redemption sequence, in which Depp gets to relax and show off his comic chops with the character’s newfound joyfulness as he visits nephew Fred (Sam Claflin) and his wife Clara (Daisy Ridley) with goose in tow, is a delight.

Depp, outfitted with prosthetic make-up and facial hair, delivers a performance that no one would call subtle. In style, it most closely resembles a heavily made-up Albert Finney’s broad take on the character in the now largely forgotten 1970 musical Scrooge. But the actor’s charisma and star power eventually come through.