The trailer for FX’s A Christmas Carol shows the darkest side of Scrooge's journey

There have been a multitude of Christmas Carol adaptations, featuring everyone from Henry Winkler to Jim Carrey, from the Muppets to Mr. Magoo. The story even figured prominently in a recent excellent episode of GLOW. But despite the spookiness of the Ghost Of Christmas Future, perhaps given the seasonal element, few of these Christmas Carols ever went straight-up goth horror. Until now, that is.

Filling your Halloween needs in December, FX now offers a Christmas Carol that is undoubtedly unbridled, judging from the trailer. As FX describes it, “An original take on Dickens’s iconic ghost story by Steven Knight (Taboo, Peaky Blinders), A Christmas Carol is a spine-tingling immersion into Scrooge’s dark night of the soul.” Awash in gloomy grays, Guy Pearce does his best Scrooge rants as a coffined Marley and the rest of the ghosts line up to haunt him. Apparently, those ghosts have been stirred up by Bob Cratchett’s wife (Vinette Robinson), who tells Scrooge in the trailer, “I am a woman and I have the power to summon such spirits and I fucking will,” a line we sure don’t remember from Dickens. There’s also hoards of starving people and a Tiny Tim sinking under the ice and someone with their mouth sewn shut and all sorts of upsetting images to weave into your holiday season.

IMDB still lists A Christmas Carol as a mini-series, but FX announces that the production will air as a movie in its entirety on December 19, followed by three additional airings, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So when the relatives get to be too much, just suggest that everyone relax and curl up in front of a nice holiday horror film. God bless us, everyone.