Photo: ManoSolo13241324 / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons. Ti West, director of Ebenezer, in 2025.
Ebenezer, Paramount’s horror-tinged retelling of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, opens in US and UK cinemas on November 13, 2026. Johnny Depp plays Ebenezer Scrooge, and Ti West, the director known for horror films, directs from a screenplay by Nathaniel Halpern. Reviews so far are mixed. Here is the cast, the release details and how critics are reacting, using Paramount+’s production notes, Screen Daily’s review and Wikipedia’s film entry.
The story and the people behind it
Paramount describes a reimagining of the 1843 novella, set on Christmas Eve in Victorian London, in which Scrooge takes a supernatural journey through his past, present and future in search of a second chance at redemption. Jacob Marley and three ghosts visit him. Paramount calls it a gothic fantasy drama with dark comedy and supernatural thriller elements. West is known for the X trilogy (X, Pearl, MaXXXine), The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers; Halpern wrote Tales From the Loop and Legion, and the two worked together on Tales From the Loop.
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Cast and who plays whom
- Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge, with Arthur Conti as young Scrooge
- Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley
- Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit
- Andrea Riseborough as the Ghost of Christmas Past
- Tramell Tillman as the Ghost of Christmas Present
- Sam Claflin as Fred, Scrooge’s nephew
- Ellie Bamber (Paramount lists Isabel Fezziwig; Wikipedia lists Belle) and Freddie Lee-Grey as Tiny Tim
- Daisy Ridley, whom Paramount lists as Clara, Fred’s wife (Wikipedia notes the July 2026 trailer identified her character as Emily Cratchit; sources differ), plus Charlie Murphy and Henry Lloyd-Hughes in roles Paramount does not specify
Release and production
Wikipedia lists the film’s premiere as November 1, 2026, at the Whitby Hotel in New York City. It reached cinemas in France on November 11, in Australia and Brazil on November 12, and in the United Kingdom and United States on November 13. The runtime is about 116 minutes.
Paramount announced the project in October 2025, and principal photography began in January 2026. Filming took place in London and Dublin, plus the Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent. Wikipedia reports a budget of $38 million and a reported $50 million marketing budget. Tyler Bates composed the score, and Checco Varese was the cinematographer.
What critics are saying
As of Wikipedia’s latest figures, the film holds 53% on Rotten Tomatoes from 83 reviews, averaging 5.4 out of 10, and 46 out of 100 on Metacritic from 32 critics, which that site rates as mixed or average. Both scores can move as more reviews arrive.
Wikipedia quotes IndieWire’s David Ehrlich, who gave the film a C- and called Depp’s performance “insufferable,” and The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, who gave it three stars out of five.
Screen Daily’s review is negative. It calls the film an “underwhelming, unnecessary” adaptation that “plays it entirely safe,” and says Depp’s Scrooge is closer to caricature than character, recalling his Jack Sparrow, Mad Hatter and Willy Wonka roles. It also criticises the screenplay for repeating the line “I’m not the man I used to be” and says the film leans so heavily on Depp that the other elements feel like window dressing.
The same review does find things to like: it calls Riseborough “terrific” and Tillman “superb,” says McKellen and Grint fare better than Depp by digging into the story’s humanity, and praises the lavish production design and visually striking ghosts. It says West’s horror touches work in places, including a door-knocker scare and a gothic Hammer Horror feel, though it adds that the film is too intense for young children despite its family-oriented rating.
The rating question
Ratings differ by country. Paramount lists PG-13 for frightening material in the US, and Wikipedia’s references give the UK classification as 12A from the British Board of Film Classification. Screen Daily warns the film is too intense for young children despite its family-oriented look, so check the rating where you live before booking.
Sources
- Paramount+: Ebenezer, everything you need to know
- Wikipedia: Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol
- Screen Daily: Ebenezer review
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