Johnny Depp returns to the shadows in Ti West’s chilling reimagining of Dickens’ classic.
Hollywood’s most haunting holiday is coming — and it’s not wrapped in red and gold, but in frost, silence, and the echo of regret.
After years away from major studio releases, Johnny Depp is stepping into one of literature’s most haunted souls: Ebenezer Scrooge.
Directed by Ti West (X, Pearl), EBENEZER: A Christmas Carol isn’t the story you grew up with — it’s a descent. A psychological study of guilt, isolation, and the unbearable weight of memory.
 A CHRISTMAS DROWNED IN SHADOW
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ti West described his version as “a ghost story first, a Christmas story second.”
Gone are the festive fireplaces and glowing Dickensian charm — replaced instead by candlelight, cold breath, and the ticking of clocks in empty rooms.
Each ghost that visits Scrooge is not a kindly spirit, but a fragment of his mind — twisted, regretful, and terrifyingly human.
Shot in authentic 19th-century locations across Bath and Edinburgh, the production uses only natural lighting and practical fog to craft what IndieWire calls “a painterly, suffocating vision of winter.”
 JOHNNY DEPP — REBIRTH IN THE DARKNESS
For Depp, this role marks both a professional resurrection and a personal confrontation.
According to Variety, Depp personally approached Ti West after reading his treatment, saying he was drawn to “a man who’s become a ghost of his own making.”
West agreed instantly.
“Scrooge isn’t evil,” he said. “He’s broken. Johnny understands broken better than most actors alive.”
The collaboration feels almost fated — West’s slow-burn psychological horror style meets Depp’s gift for quiet, haunted introspection. Early test screenings (reported by Empire Magazine) suggest his performance is “eerily transformative — less performance, more possession.”
 THREE SPIRITS — THREE FACES OF FEAR
The film reimagines the three ghosts as projections of trauma.
The Ghost of Christmas Past emerges as a flickering memory, a vision stitched together from candlelight and childhood screams.
The Ghost of Christmas Present becomes a twisted carnival of excess — a cruel mirror of the life Scrooge denied.
And the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come? A shadow in human form, faceless, crawling from the dark corners of guilt.
People Magazine described early concept art as “hieronymus Bosch by way of Dickens” — surreal, biblical, and nightmarishly beautiful.
 THE PRICE OF REDEMPTION
Every version of A Christmas Carol tells a story of forgiveness.
But Ti West asks a crueler question:
“If redemption means reliving every sin you’ve committed — would you still seek it?”
Here, salvation isn’t found in generosity, but in terror. Every scene is an emotional exorcism — until the line between punishment and purification blurs completely.
Composer Colin Stetson (Hereditary, The Color Out of Space) delivers an unsettling, breath-based score that sounds like wind through a coffin.
The result is a film where the horror doesn’t come from ghosts — but from the silence between them.
 THE RECLAMATION OF A LEGEND
Since his legal and personal battles, Depp has largely chosen quieter, character-driven roles (Jeanne du Barry, 2023).
Now, with Ebenezer, he returns not to chase stardom, but to reclaim artistry.
In an interview with The Guardian, Ti West said:
“I didn’t cast Johnny to redeem him. I cast him because he understands what it’s like to live with ghosts.”
And that may be the film’s real magic — it’s not just Scrooge who’s confronting his past.
 RELEASE & EXPECTATIONS
Set for release on November 13, 2026, Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol is already generating Oscar buzz.
Film circles on Reddit and Letterboxd have dubbed it “the first true horror of the holiday season.”
Critics who attended the early footage screening at Fantastic Fest 2025 praised it as “meticulously designed, psychologically punishing, and strangely tender.”
 WHEN THE CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT…
This Christmas won’t be merry — it’ll be mournful.
As snow falls over the grave of Scrooge’s soul, one truth remains:
Redemption always comes with a cost.
And sometimes, forgiveness is the cruelest ghost of all.
Christmas 2026 — Johnny Depp is Ebenezer.
And this time, the ghosts aren’t just visiting — they’re never leaving.
