A Christmas Carol is an inherently moralistic tale, cautioning us to nurture social bonds and give generously of our time and money to help others. Richard Donner’s 1988 adaptation of this Dickens Christmas classic is no different. Scrooged embraces the “true meaning of Christmas” (as the Grinch might say) and guides its Scrooge protagonist, television executive Frank Cross, through a series of trials to transform his perspective.
Scrooged is hilarious, cruel, and full of comic violence. It also incorporates a fair amount of horror imagery, which in some cases is quite gruesome or disturbing. In this video, I examine how comic violence and horror imagery are used by the filmmakers to support the moral lesson of the story.
See Scrooged at the IU Cinema this Friday, December 9, at 7 pm.
Laura Ivins loves stop motion, home movies, imperfect films, nature hikes, and Stephen Crane’s poetry. She has a PhD from Indiana University and an MFA from Boston University. In addition to watching and writing about movies, sometimes she also makes them.