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As a genuine lover of the original A Christmas Carol, please understand I say this with love: it takes a lot to craft a truly exciting Christmas Carol adaptation these days. There's just so many versions that have been done across the years, and to be perfectly honest with you, it is nigh impossible to top The Muppets' take. Honestly, even the announcement that a much-beloved modern horror auteur was putting their own spectral spin on the didn't quite rise to the level of turning my head.

But two of them doing it back to back? Now that has my interest.

That, of course, is what's going to be happening in the coming holiday seasons, when horror directors Robert Eggers (Nosferatu) and Ti West (MaXXXine) go (mistle)toe-to-toe with competing versions of Charles Dickens's OG Christmas classic, the latter of which was announced October 23 on Deadline. According to the outlet's reporting, West's version of the tale will star Johnny Depp in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge and go by the title 'Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol.' It will also feature a script by Legion scribe Nathaniel Halpern, and costar Oblivion's Andrea Riseborough. The film is slated for release November 13, 2026.

On the other side of the ring, weighing in at two Bram Stoker awards, will be Robert Eggers, whose Christmas Carol has a little less going for it in terms of details at this point. Announced a few months back (also by Deadline), the second film currently has neither release date or its Scrooge set, although the rumors go that those will be Christmas 2027 and Willem Dafoe, respectively.

Adding an extra bit of drama to this whole things is the fact that West's version of the Yuletide ghost story will be produced by Paramount, while Warner Bros. is footing the bill for Eggers's. As you know if you've been keeping up with recent Hollywood news, the latter of those studios is currently up for sale, and one of the top contenders for purchasing it is none other than the former.

Bah humbug, indeed.

Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol will be in theaters November 13, 2026.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's weekly explorations of the best opening moments of horror cinema in The Coldest Open, and then check out:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.