If you’ve never read Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, you’re missing out. Despite dozens of lukewarm adaptations over the years, the original story has lost none of its impact. It’s a beautifully written, perfectly structured story of redemption and mankind’s capacity to grow and evolve. At a time when callous cruelty is celebrated as national virtue, the book’s message of universal kindness is more important than ever. The Yuletide setting simply adds to the warm glow of it all.

For years, I wondered why there had never been a modern big-budget adult spoof of the story. Parodies and holiday movies are always popular, so wouldn’t a take-off on this cherished Christmas fave be a no-brainer? The biggest, most prominent adult Christmas Carol I could find (The Passions Of Carol, 1975) is so old that the VOD version begins with a scroll memorializing long-dead cast members.

Talk about humbug.