Johnny Depp’s dour ‘Ebenezer’ is a horror-tinged holiday slog

Johnny Depp certainly leaves his mark as the latest to tackle Ebenezer Scrooge, one of the great Christmas-time villains. You’ll likely not soon forget the scene where he pees himself. No one asked for another retelling of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” But here we are with “Ebenezer,” which breathlessly borrows from modern horror conventions to try to make a Victorian-era story cooler. “Enough! This nightmare has run its course,” Scrooge screams at the first of three ghosts who warn him he’s awful, and everyone watching has to agree. But alas, more than an hour remains. Director Ti West ups the macabre with street oil lamps mysteriously snuffing out, the addition of tons of ominous crows, Scrooge being sucked into his bed and legions of graveyard zombies, like out of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. He also inexplicably stops all that for an extended, heartfelt performance of “Silent Night” sung by the cast, except for Scrooge, of course.

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