TOWN'S CHRISTMAS MURAL GENERATED BY AI, LOOKS LIKE A HORROR MOVIE SCENE

Matt Case - November 20th, 2025 

LONDON — Holiday cheer took a hit along the Riverside Walk in Kingston upon Thames after a massive Christmas mural — splashed across the side of a building and towering nearly 100 feet wide — became an overnight punchline for all the wrong reasons.

The problem? The artwork was generated by artificial intelligence, and it shows.

The mural, perched above a restaurant row, was meant to paint a festive scene. Instead, it delivered a mash-up of twisted faces, misplaced limbs, dogs melting into human bodies, and a snowman sporting an extra eye on its cheek — the kind of holiday nightmare that would make even Scrooge flinch.

A second mural nearby isn’t faring much better. Social media users have compared the two pieces to everything from “a Christmas market inside a refugee camp” to “a holiday horror show that somehow got planning approval.”

So far, no artist has claimed responsibility. But local sources say the landlord commissioned and installed the murals — not the restaurants trying to serve meals beneath the AI-generated chaos.

For now, the murals remain in place, offering a strange, unsettling reminder that while AI may be able to generate images, it still can’t guarantee a Merry Christmas.