Ebenezer review: 'Johnny Depp slips back into off-kilter kook mode'
Ti West’s take on A Christmas Carol is a fairly conventional retelling served with an extra portion of gothic gore, writes Alistair Harkness
Ebenezer (12A) ★★★
Ratcheting up the horror elements of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer turns the ghostly yuletide redemption story into a Hammer-esque homage with freakier spirits, grislier effects and Johnny Depp as the bah-humbugging miser. Headlining his first studio movie since 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the hitherto cancelled megastar mostly slips back into the off-kilter kook mode familiar from his many Tim Burton collaborations. That pastiche-y acting style – all startled gurning and knowing tics – proves a good fit for playing the soon-to-be conscience-rattled Scrooge as a heart-hardened misfit too traumatised by past mistakes to take any joy in his wealth, his remaining family or his pure-of-heart underling Bob Cratchit (Rupert Grint).
More of a shock is that Depp is actually playing his own age, albeit with added prosthetics, mutton chops blunting his cheekbones, and wispy grey hair making him a more period-appropriate-looking sixty-something.
But while the title and tagline (“Before Scrooge there was…”) suggest this is some kind of new take origins story, Ebenezer – save for a few plot embellishments – is actually a pretty trad retelling. Indie-horror maverick Ti West (Pearl, Maxxxine) has chosen to retain the Victorian London setting and the three-ghosts-in-one-night structure, relishing the chance to push the gothic gore to the limits of 12A acceptability with creepy white-eyed wraiths and other ghouls in varying states of necrotic decline (Andrea Riseborough and Ian McKellen are among the spirits visiting Ebenezer).
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The end result is fun in places and overly familiar in others, though regarding the latter, it’s easy to see why no one involved was tempted to transpose this to the modern-era, Scrooged-style. The seasonal redemption theme may be evergreen, but the notion that some tech billionaire in the current climate would look deep into his soul and reform his life for the betterment of others is too implausible, even for Hollywood.
Ebenezer is in cinemas from 13 November
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