The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

“Why show me this, if I am past all hope?””

Out of all the ghosts that visited Scrooge that dark cold night, the third to appear was the one he feared the most. Appearing from the thick mist, draped in long robes, it’s face covered in shadow, and only a solemn hand visible, it pointed Scrooge onward towards the future. 

lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him.

1938 – D’Arcy Corrigan

D’Arcy Corrigan appears in the 1938 film adaption as the Ghost of Christmas Future. This spirit is dressed in a tight fitted black robe and walks around like a man. The spirit does not show it’s face, only points with it’s cloak and hand. Reginald Owen’s Ebenezer Scrooge is already a changed man at this point, and this encounter is nothing more than continuity of the story. 

1951 – Czeslaw Konarski

Alastair Sim’s Ebenezer Scrooge is not a changed man, on meeting the last of the three ghosts. He feels that he is too old and just wants to go back to bed. But the hooded figure, played by Czeslaw Konarski, points Scrooge onward to his destiny, unmoved by Scrooges pleas. This spirit floats along the ground, rather than walks and the film concentrates on it’s hand rather than it’s vacant blank face. It’s a foreboding and dark portrayal, mostly because the film rarely shows the figure in full, just parts of the spirit, hiding any human aspects to the character.

1984 –  Michael Carter

Michael Carter, most famous for playing Bib Fortuna in Return of the Jedi, takes on the cloaked spirit of Christmas Yet To Come. The shaky handed spook has little to say and is an ominous shape in the 1984 adaption of A Christmas Carol. The ghost never moves on screen, instead the cameras movements simply reveal the spirit standing in place as Scrooge moves around the scene. His one good hand pointing the way to Scrooge’s redemption. Revealed fully cloaked, his face and features hidden in shadow and surrounded by a spooky mist, this ghost is one of the more ominous forms in cinema.

1988 – Robert Hammond

The last of the ghosts to haunt Frank Cross, is the Ghost of Christmas Future. This spirit appears as a giant cloaked figure, with either a creepy skull or a video screen for a face. It has skeletal hands in which it points with and floats along the ground and it’s certainly the most terrifying version of the ‘Ghost of Christmas yet to Come’.

1992 – Robert Tygner

Robert Tygner takes on the role as the cloaked and spooky, Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, in the Muppet’s Christmas Carol. This giant and imposing specter wears a long flowing black cloak and has bony white hands. His face is shrouded in shadow. This spirit literal twists time around itself and scrooge as they journey through time. 

1999 – Tim Potter

Tim Potter plays the “third Spirit” in the 1999 film adaption, appearing as a glowing eyed, cloaked figure. Patrick Stewart’s Ebenezer Scrooge seems keen to get the haunting over with, as he urges the spirit to lead on. The ghost shows a single bony hand with long fingernails, pointing towards Scrooges destination. The inclusion of the glowing eyes does nothing to improve the apparitions appearance, but it does make it unique out of all the others in the list.