The October 5 of 13

The fifth film of the October 13 was a film from the mid-90s starring one of those characters that I loved as a kid, even though I may have been more of a Hot Stuff kid. Casper the Friendly Ghost was one of the Harvey Comics iconic characters and the creation of a live-action Casper was exciting at the time.

Honestly, I remember really liking this movie when I first saw it in the 90s. After a re-watch today, I still think it was pretty decent, but the flaws in it were much more obvious.

According to IMDB, “Furious that her late father only willed her his gloomy-looking mansion rather than his millions, Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) is ready to burn it to the ground when she discovers a map to a treasure hidden in it. But when she enters it to seek her claim, she is frightened away by a wicked wave of ghosts. Determined to get her hands on this hidden fortune, she hires afterlife therapist Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) to exorcise the ghosts from the mansion. James and his daughter, Kat (Christina Ricci), move in, and soon Kat meets Casper (Malachi Pearson), the ghost of a young boy who’s “the friendliest ghost you know”. But not so friendly are Casper’s uncles Stretch(Joe Nipote), Fatso (Bead Garrett), and Stinkie (Joe Alaskey), who are determined to drive all ‘fleshies’ away. Ultimately, it is up to James and Kat to help the ghosts cross over to the other side.“

This film was not very well balanced. At times, there were some real deep, potentially emotional ideas in the scripts, but then it went off on a slapstick, cartoonish direction that buried the ideas that were here.

The specifics between the characters and their back stories were really well done and could have been expanded to make this a better film. Casper’s past story, the relationship with Kat and her father, the absence of Kat’s mother, and Casper and Kat’s connection could have been more than enough to make this an enjoyable movie.

Unfortunately, just about everything with the film’s villain Carrigan Crittenden was over-the-top and did not feel as if it fit in with the part of this film that was the strongest. It was cool to see Eric Idle as her sidekick/flunky Dibs but he could not save any of this material.

Then the whole idea of the treasure hidden in the castle was so worn and wasted, it felt like a ghost story told by the Goonies. And not in the cool way.

I was also not a fan of the trio of Casper’s ghost uncles. The only voice I recognized was Brad Garrett but these characters were more annoying than they were interesting. I wondered what their unfinished business was and why they just stuck around to torment Casper.

Christina Ricci was charming, doing her best imitation of Wynona Rider in Beetlejuice. The special effects looked great, especially Casper. It was a nice little family film that has its share of flaws, but that has a good message and some strong actors in these roles. I think most of the problems are overcome by the positives.