“
|
I knew that place was worth something. There's treasure in that house. And finally, I'm gonna get what I deserve.
|
„
|
|
~ Carrigan Crittenden plotting with Paul "Dibs" Plutsker to retrieve the treasure from Whipstaff Manor.
|
|
“
|
Not so fast, little man! The bitch is back!
|
„
|
|
~ Carrigan after becoming a ghost.
|
|
Carrigan Crittenden is the main antagonist of the 1995 live-action movie adaptation of Casper. She is a glamorous, treacherous and greedy heiress; who discovers that; Whipstaff Manor contains treasure and seeks to obtain it so that; she can become rich, while also planning to get rid of Casper and the other ghosts that; are inside the house; which is theirs.
She was both portrayed and voiced (in her ghost form) by Cathy Moriarty.
Biography[]
Carrigan is quite furious to learn from her late father's lawyer, Mr. Rugg that; she has only inherited Whipstaff Manor in her father's will; instead of anything of significant value (most likely because he knew his fortune would be squandered on the likes of her) infuriated, she tosses the will and deed into a fireplace, but it is rescued by her attorney and close associate, Paul "Dibs" Plutzker. Dibs discovers one of the will's pages has an inscription on it describing treasure hidden in the manor.
Carrigan and Dibs visit the old manor, but find it is haunted by four ghosts; Casper, a friendly yet lonely young ghost, and his three obnoxious uncles known as the Ghostly Trio; Stretch, Fatso and Stinky. The two make several attempts to remove the spirits, such as hiring both amateur exorcist father Guido Sarducci and Ghostbuster Ray Stantz (cameo appearance of Dan Aykroyd) and even a demolition team to demolish the manor altogether, but all are unsuccessful. But later, while she is resting at a nearby hotel, Casper uses his ghostly powers to play the news report to Carrigan about of an afterlife therapist named Dr. James Harvey who explains that ghosts are simply spirits with unfinished business. Looking at the news report, Carrigan decides to contact Dr. Harvey.
After Dr. Harvey and his daughter Kat arrive at the manor, Carrigan and Dibs arrive shortly afterwards and meet them. Carrigan then orders Dr. Harvey to remove the ghosts as quickly as possible, and makes it clear he will not be paid until the job is done. However, things are complicated when Kat and her father meet the ghosts face-to-face; despite Casper's best efforts to befriend them, the two are terrified by both his appearance and the antics of the Ghostly Trio. They choose not to leave, however, and they stay for the night.
Carrigan and Dibs return to the manor a few days later and see Dr. Harvey in the library with the Ghostly Trio. They decide to have a "happy hour" with him and drag him out of the manor. This allows the two to enter the house and they start looking around for the treasure. They follow Casper and Kat (who are now friends), to Casper's father's laboratory hidden under the floorboards of the library. There they learn that a special capsule containing an equally special potion is used to run a machine called the Lazarus. This has the power to bring ghosts back to life, but now there is only enough for one. They also see the vault at the end of the laboratory when Kat points in its direction while talking with Casper. While Casper and Kat explore the Lazarus, Carrigan and Dibs, believing the treasure is inside the vault, decide to get inside to see for sure. Dibs tries to open the vault, but could not, so in a scoff, Carrigan tries her hand at it, but to no avail.
Realizing his one opportunity to come back to life, Casper with Kat's help, turns on the Lazarus and steps inside. Unfortunately, the capsule is stolen by Carrigan and Dibs before the revival process is completed, and Casper is left disappointed when he turns into an egg yolk. With the capsule in hand, Carrigan and Dibs realize that, as ghosts, they would be able to fly through thick solid walls like the vault to retrieve the treasure, and then use the Lazarus to come back to life. However, having no intention to die herself, Carrigan quickly grabs an ax and attempts (and fails) to kill Dibs with it.
After a few moments of satirical back-and-forth attempts to kill each other, Carrigan drives her car towards Dibs in an attempt to run him over. Dibs, however, grabs a statue head and throws it at her car, damaging the windshield in the process, before dodging her vehicular assault. She tries to turn around for another attempt at Dibs, but the loose gravel driveway coupled with her vehicle's speed provide little traction for her to turn, instead causing her to go zooming into the nearby woods. After a couple frantic seconds driving through the woods and being unable to see, Carrigan crashes into a tree. Her airbag instantly inflates, disorienting and frustrating her. As Carrigan fights to deflate the airbag and remove her seatbelt, she does not notice that her car, particularly the driver's side, is hanging over the edge of a cliff. She opens the door, steps out of the vehicle without looking where she's going, and falls screaming down the cliff to her death.
Moments later, Dibs makes his way out to the car to see what happened to Carrigan. He screams her name out over the cliff trying to see if she has revived as a ghost. After a few seconds of no answer, he assumes that she did not become a ghost and is dead forever. He only seems to be sad that she had a favorite pair of sunglasses of his with her; when she fell and turns and starts to walk away. At that moment, she suddenly rises back up as a monstrous ghost to a shocked Dibs.
Back at the laboratory, Kat uses a dust bellow to reinflate Casper. Just as Kat finishes, Carrigan suddenly appears as a monstrous ghost, flies into the laboratory and grabs the treasure chest inside the vault. Casper, in shock, claims that it's his treasure. but Carrigan bellows, "You mean my treasure!". Kat is shocked to see Carrigan as a ghost, and she replies, "In the flesh. Well, in a couple of minutes, anyway", and unleashes an evil laugh. Dibs soon reappears and shows Carrigan the capsule to help her remember. Kat realizes that Dibs stole the capsule and claims that it's Casper's. Carrigan laughs and tells them to just sue her, and she orders Dibs to bring the capsule to the Lazarus to revive her. Just as he approaches, Casper steals the capsule back from Dibs, knocks him into the moat of the laboratory, and takes Kat back upstairs, where she greets the high school kids, who have arrived for her Halloween party.
Casper and Kat return back to the laboratory, where Kat stops Casper from confronting Dibs for opening his treasure. They install the potion into the Lazarus, only to find Carrigan inside the machine, telling Casper that it's her turn in the oven. She orders Dibs to turn her human again, but he, having finally become fed up with her abuse and disrespect of him, turns on her, saying that they are through and motions his arm as if to throw and break the capsule, which would force Carrigan to remain a ghost forever. Seeing this, Carrigan gasps in shock and tells him that she will never forget this betrayal. Unbothered by her threats, he declares that he will use the treasure to buy a great, big expensive house with lovely, purple wallpaper and great, big, green carpets and adopt a little dog called Carrigan, saying she'd be "a bitch just like you!". He proclaims that he has got the power and the treasure, which prompts her to angrily fling him out of a window to his presumed death.
With Dibs handled, only Carrigan remains. Casper and Kat then deal with her by sneakily pointing out that people only become ghosts because they have "unfinished business" and ask Carrigan what hers is. Carrigan arrogantly declares that she has no unfinished business, saying that she has her treasure, her mansion, and the potion that she intends to use to return herself to life ("I have everything. I'm just perfect!") she laughs again, but her declaration suddenly causes her to begin crossing over to the afterlife against her will. Realizing she has been tricked, she desperately tries to take back her declaration before she berates Casper and Kat by calling them "rotten little brats" before she finally disintegrates and explodes, with one last long held "nooooo!" before vanishing from the world of the living and into the afterlife forever.
When Casper and Kat then open the treasure chest, they discover it contains an autographed baseball and a mitt, meaning Carrigan got herself killed and crossed over into the afterlife for nothing.
Personality[]
Carrigan was a nasty, greedy, spoiled, selfish and cruel woman. Carrigan's late father had a huge fortune, but he didn't leave any of it to her, which deeply angered her; it was implied at the beginning of the film that; this was due to their relationship being strained for some time; prior to his passing, likely; due to her spoiled and greedy behavior. Therefore, upon discovering that, Whipstaff Manor the old mansion that he did leave to her may contain treasure, she became obsessed with possessing the treasure for herself.
Carrigan often treated the people that; she met with degradation, as seen in her behavior with Dibs and when; she berated Dr. Harvey for suggesting that it could take years to get Whipstaff's ghosts to cross over, topping it off with shoving a bouquet of obviously fake flowers into his hands.
Carrigan was also very persistent and demanding in her goals, shown as when she and Dibs continuously tried to kill each other to try to make each other a ghost. This was also displayed in how she seemed unbothered by her own death (despite it not being her intention) as she uses her powers to get the treasure, assuming the whole time she will be able to come back to life, and when she very rudely demanded that Dibs return her to life, the latter of which finally caused him to turn against her.
Quotes[]
Trivia[]
- Carrigan is the only main villain in a Casper film who is a normal human being instead of a ghost or a human with supernatural powers, although she does become a ghost at the end of the film. She is also the only villain in the series, who is a female. Her ghost is also one of the only ones to have additional features. After Carrigan's death, her ghostly appearance has blonde hair, sinister dark makeup, red fingernails and a skintight black body suit. She is also often considered to be the evilest.
- Although Carrigan never intends to die in order to get the treasure, she appears to be fine with it once she becomes a ghost, laughing at a joke she makes about being in the flesh. Most likely because she assumes that; with the capsule that; she will be revived very soon. Not taking death seriously; until Dibs turns on her, acting like he will throw and destroy the capsule, the narcissistic Carrigan gasps at the thought of her corpse decomposing and permanently staying as a ghost. Also, she gets very serious even terrified; when tricked; into claiming that; she has no unfinished business as this trigger her to cross over. Again, realizing crossing over will be permanent, she gasps and tries taking it back, but it is irreversible; until she finally explodes, causing her to be dead and gone for all eternity.
- Cathy Moriarty would play another character in a later Casper film. She played Gerti, one of Wendy's aunts in Casper Meets Wendy.
- Glenn Close, Sigourney Weaver, Kathleen Turner, the late Carrie Fisher and Michelle Pfeiffer were all considered for the role of Carrigan Crittenden before Cathy Moriarty was cast.
- Carrigan's last name is or might a pun on the word "cretin".
- Even if Carrigan had succeeded in being revived, it wouldn't have mattered as the so-called "treasure" was revealed to be nothing more than a (seemingly) worthless autographed baseball. But Carrigan would've probably become rich from bringing back info on the Lazarus of which Casper's deceased father was thought of as "legally insane".
Navigation[]