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For some reason, the first trailer for Ebenezer doesn’t emphasize its new vision for one of the most memorable stories in English literature. Instead the trailer leans into the audience’s fondness for its star Johnny Depp, citing roles such as Captain Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands, the Mad Hatter, and, of course, his very first screen character, Glen Lantz. No, the on-screen titles don’t explicitly state Glen’s name, nor do they mention his film, 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. But one shot in the trailer does recall Glen’s final fate.
Among the images of Depp giving a very hammy performance as Scrooge, we see a sequence in which Ebenezer gets swallowed by his bed, presumably to visit a ghost of the past, present, or future. The sequence brings to mind the death of Glen in A Nightmare on Elm Street, in which Freddy’s clawed hand shoots from the bed once Glen falls asleep. He pulls the teen through the mattress, leaving a hole from which a geyser of blood shoots out. The trailer doesn’t get quite as bloody but it is enough to suggest that Ebenezer might be Hollywood’s first fully horror take on A Christmas Carol.
Surprising as that might sound to modern viewers, A Christmas Carol‘s first readers would have understood Dickens’ novella as a horror tale first and a holiday staple second. The story of a miserly man visited by an assortment of ghosts and threatened with eternal damnation certainly offered hope to the working masses with whom Dickens sympathized. But it also would have filled their richer neighbors with dread, especially via its images of endless moaning and ethereal spirits. In fact, the popularity of A Christmas Carol inspired a holiday tradition among the Victorian Brits in which friends and families would gather round the fireplace to spend Christmas Eve trying to spook one another with ghost stories and tales of terror.
Certainly every motion picture adaptation of Dickens has included the ghosts, whether it be Michael Hordern bellowing Bob Marley in Scrooge, Carol Kane beating up Bill Murray in Scrooged, or the various Muppets singing with Michael Caine. However, as just this short survey indicates, many movie and TV adaptations filter the tale through a different genre, turning a story about a man facing eternal damnation into a puppet show or a comedy.
For the most part, the trailer for Ebenezer does little to change the approach. With its rollicking Danny Elfman-esque score and collection of Johnny Depp shenanigans, the trailer seems to be promising a latter-day Tim Burton movie, which can have some monsters but is generally more silly than scary.
Yet this is not Burton behind the camera. It’s Ti West, the man who made great slow-burn horror movies like The House of the Devil and X. West established himself as a master of letting things unfold in front of the camera, most famously the haunting smile that Mia Goth flashes at the end of Pearl.
With its loud music, big performance, and fast cuts, the trailer for Ebenezer features little of West’s style. But if he’s able to make the movie he wants to make, and if Depp can conjure some of the horror chops he brought to A Nightmare on Elm Street, then Ebenezer might make A Christmas Carol scary again.
Ebenezer comes to theaters on Nov. 13, 2026.
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