Nightmare Fuel / The Muppet Christmas Carol

"Spirit... I fear you more than any spectre I have yet met."

Rizzo: Ooh, that's scary stuff. Should we be worried about the kids in the audience?

Gonzo: Nah, it's alright. This is culture.

• Michael Caine's Scrooge is wrathful and physically intimidating and can be scary as a result, especially since most of the people he's bullying are innocent two-foot-tall Muppets. His introduction is potentially frightening for young children since we don't see his face until the end of the first song; before that, he's a menacing, partially hidden figure, prowling through the streets of London while everyone else cowers away. His face is kept in shadow, making him seem like some sort of monster.
  Every day in every way, Scrooge is getting worse!
• Every scene with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which is one of the reasons Gonzo and Rizzo abandon the narration till the finale, partly to let the scene play without comedy, but also because even Gonzo was scared.
  Rizzo: (shuddering with fear) Oh, this is too scary. I don't think I wanna see anymore.
  Gonzo: Oooh, when you're right, you're right. You're on your own, folks. We'll meet you at the finale.
  Rizzo: Yeah. (They hide in the church.)
  • The music that accompanies the graveyard scenes with the Yet to Come apparition is quite spooky as well.
  • The Ghost is terrifying, but the looters who go through Scrooge's stuff after his death are also frightening on a more mundane level. Old Joe is literally a Giant Spider in a hat, and the casual indifference of the looters themselves at going through a dead person's belongings — implied within only hours of them dying — is enough to give anyone pause.
    Old Joe: So, back from the house of sadness I see?
    Laundress: (scoffs) Sad that he didn't die years ago, the old skin flint! (laughs)
    Mrs. Dilbur: Hear, hear.
    Old Joe: Well let me see. What have you got for Old Joe, eh? What have you got for me to remember him by? (tickles the Laundress.)
    Mrs. Dilbur: Joe, get off. (swipes away his hand)
    Undertaker: Well, I got these collar buttons from his dresser. Mother of pearl.
    Laundress: No no no no! I got his bed curtains! Very fine damask. Hoo hoo hoo!
    Old Joe: Very cheap damask. But worth a few coins.
    Mrs: Dilbur: And I got his blankets.
    Old Joe: His blankets? Why, Mrs. Dilbur, they're still warm! I don't pay extra for the warmth, you know.
    Mrs. Dilbur: You should. It's the only warmth he ever had!
  • The portal that the Ghost and Scrooge walk through is also pretty terrifying. Also with the deep ghostly wail that can be heard after the two emerge out of it to the next scene, followed by creaking and snapping as the background behind them straightens out from being twisted by the warp hole, as if reality itself has been angrily rebuilt into the bed Scrooge is making for himself.
  • No doubt that many a viewer saw the Ghost's appearance to be eerily reminiscent of more than a few interpretations of The Grim Reaper, just like in the book.
• Appropriately, the scene where the Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come shows Scrooge that he is the man whose death brought so much joy and relief to others is spine-chilling in its build-up. The way Scrooge repeatedly stalls going towards the tombstone and reaffirms his change of heart all but outright states that he already suspects that it's his name on the headstone, yet it's only when he receives the final, undeniable confirmation that he breaks down in despair and remorse, crystallizing his Heel–Face Turn.
  Scrooge: (begins sobbing, and continues to do so as he speaks) Ebenezer Scrooge. Oh please, Spirit, no... Hear me, I'm not the man I was. Why would you show me this if I was past all hope?
• While the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is intentionally creepy, the child-like Ghost of Christmas Past is accidentally creepy; with their floating robes, ethereal glow, doll-like hands, expressionless face and Icy Blue Eyes.
• The scene where Jacob Marley's face appears on the door knocker and yells Scrooge's name caught a lot of people off-guard.
• Chains not only appear out of nowhere at one point to constrict Scrooge, but at the end of the number, they slither out from the darkness and slowly drag the Marleys into the shadows. The song is briefly interrupted when the chains start strangling them.
• At one point in their song, the Marleys reminisce about the time they evicted an entire orphanage in the middle of winter, then laugh about their evil deeds. Before they can finish laughing, they both shudder in horror at what they did.
• The song the Marley brothers sing is supremely creepy when you read the lyrics. The first segments of the song, it's about the Marley brothers half gloating about how evil they were and half realizing how horrid they were with the knowledge they've doomed themselves, all while chains gradually encroach the brothers. Then out of nowhere, money boxes sing in creepy voices that Scrooge should enjoy his sins while he can because the moment he dies, he'll be suffering the same fate as the Marleys.
  Doomed, Scrooge!
  You're doomed for all time!
  Your future is a horror story
  Written by your crime
  Your chains are forged
  By what you say and do
  So have your fun
  When life is done
  A nightmare waits for you!
  • The last few lines in this verse are sung by the money boxes that connect to the Marleys' chains and are worded in such a way that suggests Scrooge is Beyond Redemption at this point, and that his terrible fate after death was inevitable (although the worst the movie shows him doing by this point is threatening to fire Bob Cratchit and the bookkeepers for petty reasons, stating that the poor should go to the poor houses/prisons or die to decrease the surplus population and ask them to hand out eviction notices on Christmas Day).
    • The phrasing of the nightmare awaiting Scrooge upon death after his life of cruelty, heavily implies that rather than being forced to witness the kindness he might've shared with others but now unable to do so for all eternity like in the original story, the Marleys have gone to Hell, have only been allowed to warn Scrooge about avoiding such a fate as the only reprieve before being sent back, and that Scrooge is next if he doesn't shape up. Young children will take the lyrics at face value that Scrooge will be chain up by the creepy boxes as a ghost in the afterlife, but adults realize the terrifying existential hints, which is creepier than saying it directly.
  • The soundtrack version is no slouch either, as it includes a verse about the Marleys going back to hell where they belong, also included in at least one broadcast version.
    We're Marley and Marley
    And now it's time to part
    To go back where they keep our kind
    The wretched and the heartless
• Before the Marleys appear, Scrooge is enjoying a snack when the bell suddenly rings. He looks up at it, and then hears a creak from the stairs. He thinks nothing of it and tries to resume his snack until the bell rings again, this time lasting longer, and after it stops the fire goes out. Then we see a luminous light from downstairs, along with an ominous chorus. When the bell rings the second time, the camera gives us a Staggered Zoom toward Scrooge, who looks unnerved.
• While the moment where Gonzo accidentally sets Rizzo's tail on fire has been known to send the audience into fits of laughter, it has also been known to terrify small children.

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