Horror director Ti West is taking on A Christmas Carol, and he wants its ghosts to be spooky. Ebenezer stars Johnny Depp as Scrooge, with the filmmaker behind The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers and the X, Pearl and MaXXXine trilogy bringing his eye for horror to Dickens’ story.
The CinemaCon footage gives a glimpse of what that means. Tramell Tillman’s Ghost of Christmas Present has an exposed ribcage, with creatures springing from his chest. Andrea Riseborough’s Ghost of Christmas Past appears bald and white, wearing what looks like a wedding gown.
The Ghost of Christmas Future towers over the scene, while Ian McKellen’s Jacob Marley looks unusually pale.
For West, the hauntings have always been part of the appeal. He told Entertainment Weekly he grew up reading the book annually, and that Marley in the George C. Scott adaptation “really freaked me out.”
“I’ve always thought no one’s really made the movie version where the ghosts are a little bit spooky,” he said.
The unsettling imagery extends beyond the spirits. Den of Geek’s trailer coverage described Scrooge being swallowed by his bed, a moment that recalls Depp’s death in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
Some of the ghost designs also reach back to the book’s beginnings. Bloody Disgusting noted similarities between the film’s phantoms and John Leech’s illustrations for the 1843 first edition.
West gives the spirits distinct personalities, too. Tillman’s Ghost of Christmas Present has limited time and little patience for the people he visits. McKellen’s Marley gets a scene before his death, showing the man behind the haunting.
“Marley is really kind of a son of a bitch in the movie,” West told Entertainment Weekly, though he said McKellen makes him appealing despite that.
For all its frightening imagery, West described the adaptation as “in reverence of the text,” with some departures. The heartfelt moments, loss and eventual joy remain part of the story. How far the finished film takes its scares, and what rating it receives, remains to be seen.
Ebenezer opens in theaters November 13, 2026.
