Ebenezer: can Johnny Depp make Scrooge feel frightening again?
Official trailer promotional image: Paramount Pictures. Source.
Smart summary
Johnny Depp plays Scrooge in Ti West’s Ebenezer, a new take on A Christmas Carol. Paramount lists November 13, 2026 for its premiere; VOX lists November 12 in Saudi Arabia. This is a preview based on official information, not a review of the finished film.
When did we stop finding A Christmas Carol frightening? Strip away the decorations and it is a story about a man being confronted by ghosts, his wasted life and his own mortality. Ebenezer is arriving with a useful opportunity: make a familiar Christmas ritual feel unsettling again.
Johnny Depp plays Scrooge, with Ti West directing and Nathaniel Halpern writing. The VOX Cinemas listing describes a supernatural journey through the character’s past, present and future. Familiar bones, then. The question is what kind of life this version puts around them.
When can you see Ebenezer?
Paramount’s catalogue gives a November 13, 2026 premiere. For Saudi readers, VOX lists November 12, with English dialogue and Arabic subtitles. Check your chosen cinema for its actual sessions; a release date is not a guarantee that every location has the same schedule.
Who is in it?
Paramount identifies Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit, Andrea Riseborough as Christmas Past, Sam Claflin as Fred, Daisy Ridley as Clara and Tramell Tillman as Christmas Present. That creates several different pressures around Scrooge: the employee affected by his cruelty, the family member reaching toward him and the visitors who refuse to let him look away.
The casting is a reason to be curious, not a substitute for seeing the performances. A familiar name on a poster can sell an opening weekend. It cannot tell us whether the emotional turn at the centre of the story will feel earned.
What should the film get right?
For us, Scrooge works when his nastiness feels like a defence that has hardened into a life. If he is merely a collection of funny sneers, the haunting becomes a parade of effects. If we recognise the frightened person underneath, the same visits can become painful.
That is the balance to watch in the official trailer: spectacle can introduce the ghosts, but the finished film will need quieter moments to make the human consequences matter. We have not reviewed the film, so there is no viewing score or recommendation disguised as a verdict here.
Pylcrow’s take
Ebenezer has an appealing question to answer: can a story whose ending almost everyone knows still make us nervous about the journey? We are interested in the ghost-story angle. Whether it becomes more than an atmospheric trailer is something the full film has to prove.
Keep exploring: Our Movies & TV section collects film previews, explainers and review roundups.
Reporting checked November 10, 2026 (Saudi time). Sources are linked alongside the relevant claims; Pylcrow’s take is editorial interpretation.
