Kids These Days Don't Walk Abroad Among Their Fellow Men Anymore
Thoughts on why Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a beautiful, long lasting, horror story.
{An extended version of this article has been published in What Sleeps Beneath (whatsleepsbeneath.com)
Happy Friday the 13th to all who celebrate! Due to unforeseen circumstances (whoever has Friday The 13th Part 2 out of the library is simply keeping it, apparently, it’s been out for a month), the fact that Christmas approaches, and the fact that I am currently performing in a theatrical spoof of A Christmas Carol, you are getting a post about A Christmas Carol. Because it is a horror story. Enjoy, stay spooky, and happy holidays!
(Also before I begin I want to make clear that the best adaptation is The Muppets’. It has the most of the original text, and Michael Caine makes you feel every second of Scrooge’s redemption as he plays the entire thing like he’s not surrounded by puppets, but by fellow actors. And Gonzo plays Charles Dickens himself. It’s perfect.)
Hauntings are a very well-known horror phenomenon. From Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and its many adaptations, to the countless haunted houses that pop up every October, to haunted house movies like The Orphanage and The Conjuring, horror audiences are no stranger to ghosts. But a ghost story that is often unjustly left off of horror lists, though it features prominently on many Christmas ones, is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol is widely known as a Christmas story, and, although the ghosts are really the driving force of the whole thing, not really as a horror story. There are two problems here. The first is that I am a firm believer in horror being widely recognized for its ability to be smart and funny and heartwarming, and denying or not acknowledging a horror story as a horror story adds to the belief that anything that is called horror could not possibly be any of those things. The second problem is that, while it is indeed a Christmas story, A Christmas Carol isn’t really about Christmas. While the season is very important to the goings-on, Scrooge isn’t being asked to change his attitude about Christmas - he’s being asked to changed his attitude about humanity using Christmas as his lens. These two pieces of information are vital to keep in mind while analyzing A Christmas Carol and its place in the horror canon, where it belongs.
As previously established, A Christmas Carol is about a haunting. While it may not be a typical haunted house story, its plot revolves around the ghosts that visit Scrooge to make him change his ways. Whether it’s his dead partner, Jacob Marley, or the exuberant Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge is haunted throughout the story until he learns to be kind and show his appreciation for his fellow men. The scene where Scrooge is taken to the cemetery and left there to be shown his own gravestone is genuinely chilling, as are the scenes that precede it, of various London townsfolk celebrating Scrooge’s death and pawning off his belongings. It hits just about all the notes of a good horror story, from ghosts to cemeteries to existential dread, and is still one of the most lasting and famous Christmas stories ever.
There are several other dots that can be connected from A Christmas Carol to the horror genre, from the popularity of Christmas horror movies like Black Christmas and the more recent Terrifier 3, but there will be more on those later. The movie I want to focus on in relation to A Christmas Carol for the time being is The Exorcist. I understand that this seems a bit out of left field, but bear with me. The Exorcist is not a Christmas movie (obviously) but it is also about a man redeeming himself and his place on Earth through otherworldly means. Ebeneezer Scrooge is miserly and nasty, and therefore must be redeemed or be doomed to wander the Earth as a ghost, since he did not do so in life. Father Damien Karras is a Jesuit priest and counselor, who has begun to question his faith and must be redeemed in that regard or (we assume) end up in Hell or Purgatory or somewhere like that. And both of these men find their redemption in other peoples’ suffering. Father Karras finds his through the possession of Regan MacNeil, using her pain for his gain, as it were. He redeems himself in finding enough of his faith to drive out the demon, moments before his death. Ebeneezer Scrooge finds his redemption in the Cratchits, the poor family whose patriarch he employs. At the beginning of the story, he is abusive to Bob Cratchit, both verbally and financially, bullying him, refusing him warmth, not paying him for his hard work, and nearly making him work all of Christmas Day. He is forced into his redemption by four ghosts, the first his dead business partner Jacob Marley, the rest, spirits of time, come to show him what Christmas truly is - and what will happen to him if he does not learn the message it brings. Both Scrooge and Karras are terrorized into faith and humanity, as many others in the horror canon have been. This parallel does many things, not the least of which is provide even more evidence for A Christmas Carol’s place in horror, but it also shows that A Christmas Carol was never really about Christmas.
While A Christmas Carol is, at it’s core, a horror story, it is also undeniably a Christmas story. There is, as I mentioned before, a fine tradition of Christmas horror movies, like Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (the post about which is linked above), Terrifier 3, Better Watch Out, and Gremlins, to name a few. But, with most of these films, as with A Christmas Carol, Christmas is more a contrasting backdrop to the horrors onscreen than anything else. In Black Christmas, the festive season adds a bright and cheerful backdrop that makes the horrors and manipulations of the plot stand out all the more horrifyingly. In A Christmas Carol, Christmas is the lens through which Scrooge is made to look at humanity. A Christmas Carol posits that Christmas is when people are at their best, during a time of coming together in joy and comfort during the coldest and darkest part of winter. The contrast to Christmas in A Christmas Carol is not the evil of murder, or of possession, but is instead the evil that is Scrooge’s miserliness and misanthropy, shown as the ghosts take him through his life. You watch as Scrooge neglects the girl who loves him for the promise of business and money, as he puts the Cratchits and their lives in jeopardy during this cold time so that he can have more money for himself, and, finally, as he dies alone, his death celebrated by everyone who knew him and his belongings sold. While the ghosts are, inherently, haunting, as is the cemetery and other such spooky scenes like Jacob Marley’s appearance, the real fear in A Christmas Carol is of greed and bitterness, of what happens when all joy in a person is taken by greed and rigidity. Christmas is the backdrop to show just how far gone Scrooge is that he wouldn’t stop working, not even to spend time with his love or his nephew, even on this most joyous holiday.
There are enough movies and books about hauntings that they are a proper subgenre of horror. Many many people have written ghost stories, and many many more will in the future. A haunting is a beautiful thing, a little piece of the past (or present or future) coming back for more, whether it’s sowing more fear or needing more love, ghosts will always be a vital part of the horror genre. And none can prove this point better than one of the originals. A Christmas Carol is a cultural touchstone, a wonderfully scary ghost story, and a Christmas story full of heart. It deserves a well-honored and recognized place in the horror canon, and is, without a doubt, one of the best horror stories ever written.
This post’s link is for the YWCA housing department. Because, contrary to Scrooge’s belief at the beginning of the show, people need safe places to stay as far from prisons, workhouses, and abuse as possible. Especially as it gets colder and darker. The YWCA supports families that need a safe place to stay. The page I have linked has a section titled “You Can Fill A Home With Hope” where you can donate or shop to support that cause. Please contribute if you are able. https://www.ywcacassclay.org/housing