Ebenezer Review — Johnny Depp brings a chill to Christmas

The street lamps go out in Ebenezer, and suddenly Christmas Eve feels like a night you’d rather spend indoors. Of course, indoors is exactly where Ebenezer Scrooge’s trouble finds him. Director Ti West leans into the ghost story at the heart of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and Johnny Depp gives him a Scrooge who makes the haunting worth watching.

Depp is especially good at showing how long Scrooge can cling to his indignation even after he’s plainly terrified. You can see the effort it takes for him to keep up the scowl as the night slips out of his control. That stubbornness gives the performance a dark sense of humor. As the spirits force Scrooge to look back on his life, Depp lets you see how much it costs him to admit that he’s had a hand in making himself so lonely.

Production designer Eve Stewart’s Victorian London gives the movie much of its personality. The dark timber, crooked buildings and cramped rooms make the city feel damp and cold enough to get into your bones. The sets also give West plenty of places to hide things. A narrow street can feel ominous before a lamp goes dark, and a room can feel too small before a ghost even enters it.

The thrills build as Scrooge realizes that the rules of his own house no longer apply. The encounter with his old business partner Jacob Marley, played by Ian McKellen, makes his isolation feel suddenly dangerous. By the time the night reaches the graveyard, West has pushed a story most of us know by heart into genuinely creepy territory. Knowing which ghost comes next does surprisingly little to prepare you for what it’s like when it arrives.

The scares give the ending some extra weight. After watching Depp spend so much of the night trying to hold himself together, there’s real pleasure in seeing Scrooge finally open up to the people around him. Ebenezer earns that warmth one cold, unsettling scene at a time.