Whoa, 1995's Casper Ending Is A Lot More Messed Up Than I Remember

I love watching all the best horror movies during the month of October, but I also love to treat myself to one of the most fun Halloween movies of my childhood during this time of the year, too. My most recent pick: 1995’s Casper. I can remember having it on VHS growing up, but I realized I hadn’t revisited it in a long time when I noticed it among the titles available with my Netflix subscription. When I clicked play, I was not expecting such a twisted storyline about the beloved cartoon character. SPOILERS are ahead.

What Happens At The End Of 1995’s Casper

Casper revolves around the friendly ghost as he lives in a house that’s been deemed haunted by its new owner, Carrigan, who's determined to rid the property of any supernatural entities after inheriting it from her late father. In a last ditch attempt to save her property, and acquire the hidden treasure located in the home, she hires Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman), a ghost therapist, to help her out. The psychologist brings along his 13-year-old daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) to access the house, and it’s not long before they come across Casper and the Ghostly Trio.

Toward the end of the movie, Kat has befriended Casper and Dr. Harvey has become unexpectedly close with the Ghostly Trio. When Kat asks around about how Casper died, she jogs his memory. Casper died of pneumonia and began haunting his own father, who was declared legally insane for his constant talk of seeing his dead son.

Casper’s dad decided to build a machine called the Lazarus to bring Casper back to life, but he died before he could reunite with him. Casper unveils the machine to Kat, and they decide to use it to bring him to life – that is until a drunk Dr. Harvey falls to his death while getting drunk at a karaoke bar while hanging out with the Ghostly Trio.

Casper sacrifices his one chance to be resurrected to Dr. Harvey, and the Lazarus works. Dr. Harvey’s late wife and Kat’s mom then pays Casper a visit to commend him for his selfless act, and awards him like 45 minutes as a human to dance with Kat at her Halloween party, occurring on the premises of the house, before he becomes a ghost again.

I Can’t Stop Thinking About How Brutal The Whole Storyline Is

Oh, I have so many thoughts about how this movie plays out. For one, in the original cartoon, Casper isn’t supposed to be an actual child ghost, he’s the child of two ghost parents. The whole dark backstory the movie gives him (and fails to tell us about the Ghostly Trio) is absolutely tragic, especially because he’s basically been the slave of the trio for who knows how long. There’s also a not-so-subtle flirtation he has with Kat, because he’s stuck as the ghost of a pre-teen boy, who must be constantly thinking about all the naughty things middle school boys are known for.

But, what really irks me about the Casper ending, is how things shake out for the child ghost after all that. Kat’s mom is characterized as an angel, who decides to grant Casper the ability to be a human for a short time, but I think it’s such a mean consolation prize for using the machine his father literally made for him after Dr. Harvey was careless. At least make Casper human for a few days, or allow him to live out his human life? Instead, he simply gets a taste of having a pulse before having to share the space with the family that kept him from using a massive gift his late father slaved over to allow him to live a full life.

Look, there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense about Casper, but I actually can’t believe this movie from my childhood was so messed up!