Casper (1995)

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Casper (1995)

6/10

Starring

Bill Pullman

Christina Ricci

Cathy Moriarty

Directed by Brad Silberling

Casper is a movie that I enjoy watching over again even after 17 years this 1995 movie is very impressive, the acting and performance that both Pullman and Ricci pulled off is one that I sure admire, as both actors had to act without anything being there, as the ghosts were CGI effects added after filming, so when this two act scared and are talking, there were doing it talking to just air.

The movie is interesting and likable, the plot holes are very obvious, with the whole crossing over thing, but the movie production is good enough to make you ignore the plot holes.

The movie is based on a Children’s book titled: The Friendly Ghost released in 1939 and an animated series done in 1945. It is directed by Brad Siberling who did a moderately good job here and who went ahead to direct City of Angels (1998) which was also not well received and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004).

The movie plot starts with the antagonist Carrigan discovering that her late father willed to her an abandoned house. This made her furious cause all she wanted were his money.  While disposing of the papers to the house she discovered a paper saying that there is a treasure hidden in the house.

She, now ready to get the treasure goes to the house only to discover that it is being haunted by 4 ghosts, so she hired Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) to help exorcise the ghost. James moved into the house, with her daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) although James has experience dealing with ghost he has not actually seen one, so both he and his daughter were scared to bits when they moved in.

They soon discovered to among the 4 ghost that there is a friendly one named Casper. With Carrigan deadline approaching James is stuck with the task of getting rid of the Ghost who seemed to be rather enjoying their haunted house.

Casper was a huge commercial success bringing in way over 280 million from its 55 million production cost, but the movie didn’t receive good reviews, holding a 44% approval rating from critics in rotten tomatoes.

The movie’s down side is the role of the antagonist Carrigan (played by Cathy Moriarty), she seemed viciously stupid, the writers made her money hungry which in turn made her throw it all away just to get a treasure box, a treasure box that she did not know what it contained.

Putting it all together, this is a nice DVD to own. Casper had two sequels (that I know off) Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1997) and Casper meets Wendy (1998). The sequels featured new people, but the ghosts Casper, Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso all were present in the sequels Cathy Moriarty who played Carrigan in this movie was also in Casper meets Wendy in the movie she plays the head witch. None of the sequels are anywhere as good as this original, so don’t even bother.