A Christmas Carol is one of those stories everyone knows about and few have actually read. That’s a shame, as the Charles Dickens novella is one of his best works: tough, thrilling, and dramatic without being too dark or saccharine. It’s the perfect story for Christmas, which can conjure feelings of warm sentiment as well as cold reflection.
One thing A Christmas Carol is not, however, is laugh-out-loud funny. That’s where Scrooged comes in. The 1988 movie starring Bill Murray as a modern version of Ebenezer Scrooge is full of cutting-edge humor, both dark and bawdy, and yet it somehow remains faithful to Dickens’ vision of a haunted Christmas Eve that is followed by a dark night of the soul and a redemptive Christmas morning.
Where can you watch Scrooged?
If you want to watch Billy Murray be visited by three ghosts, there are two main platforms where you can watch it for free with a subscription. Paramount+ and Amazon Prime Video are the current streaming homes for Scrooged.
While Scrooged may lure you to Paramount+, there are many more shows and movies available on the platform to make your subscription worth your while. Shows like The Good Fight, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and The Twilight Zone and hit movies like The Lost City, Orphan: First Kill, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 are just a few of the titles that you won’t want to miss.
Stream Scrooged on Paramount+Prime Video has a considerable library of its own with originals like The Tomorrow War, The Peripheral, Fleabag, Jack Ryan, and the worldwide hit The Rings of Power. Prime’s library also includes classic films like the James Bond films and The 40-Year Old Virgin.
Stream Scrooged on Prime VideoWhen does it stream for subscribers?
Scrooged is currently streaming on both platforms.
How much does it cost?
That depends on what kind of plan and platform you prefer. To take advantage of the free trial, simply head to the Paramount+ website and sign up here. Your first seven days will be free, but after the trial period, subscription plans start as low as $5 per month. That option (called “Essential”) comes with limited commercial interruptions. If you don’t want any ads, the Premium monthly subscription will cost you $10 a month.
You can save money if you commit to a one-year subscription, too. An Essential annual subscription is $50 a year while a Premium annual subscription is $100.You can also bundle the Paramount+ subscription with a Showtime subscription for $12 a month or $120 a year. For more info on all Paramount+ subscription plans, click here.
For Amazon Prime Video, it costs $9 a month just for the Prime Video service.
Is Scrooged worth watching?
Yes, and you don’t have to be in the holiday mood either. Scrooged stands on its own as a ripe satire of 1980s consumer culture, with Murray never better as a slimeball TV executive who has disdain for just about everybody. That Scrooged is also a terrific Christmas movie that cleverly updates Dickens’s classic is just icing on the gingerbread house.
In addition to Murray, the film stars Karen Allen, Alfre Woodard, John Glover, Robert Mitchum, the Solid Gold Dancers (yep, that’s a thing), and Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Scrooged was directed by Richard Donner and runs 100 minutes.
The movie has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 69% and an audience score of 71%.
