October is finally here, which means spooky season has arrived. Now’s the time to revisit cozy classics covering everything from witchcraft to vampires. This year marks the 30th anniversary of one such fan-favorite: Casper, which is being re-released in theaters to celebrate this milestone.

Growing up, I had a bigger attachment to the 1998 direct-to-video prequel, Casper Meets Wendy, because I was a big Hilary Duff fan. Nevertheless, I could never resist the charm of the тιтular friendly ghost, and revisiting Casper to kick off October was a nostalgic delight.

Not every part of the Brad Silberling-directed movie has aged well, but it still has plenty to enjoy. Even now in 2025, it remains both a solid go-to Halloween movie for families and an entertaining trip down memory lane for those who grew up with it.

Casper’s Excellent Performances & Set Design Redeem Story Shortcomings

Steven Spielberg served as a producer on Casper, and it’s easy to see shades of his classic adventure movies in this one. In the aptly-named Maine town of Friendship, there are rumors and legends about a towering house that’s been long abandoned. Kids are mystified by it, but often too scared to go anywhere beyond the front gates.

In this case, the rumors are true, since the house truly is haunted by four ghosts. Though three of them — Stretch (Joe Nipote), Stinkie (Joe Alaskey), and Fatso (Brad Garrett) — prefer to terrorize innocent humans, their nephew Casper (Malachi Pearson) only wishes to befriend them, though that’s complicated by the way they tend to run off screaming the second he materializes.

When the greedy new owner of the house, Carrigan (Cathy Moriarty), sets her sights on officially exorcising all the spirits, Casper sees his best opportunity to make a friend. This is where Christina Ricci’s Kat comes in, with her father, James (Bill Pullman), enlisted to serve as a therapist for the ghosts.

Much of Casper‘s strengths come from its refreshingly tangible world and Ricci’s performance, both of which go a long way in smoothing over its weaknesses. With the former, Leslie Dilley’s production design is simultaneously cozy and haunting, and gets shown off in vivid detail through a number of excellent setpieces, like James’ duel with the trio of rowdy ghosts and Kat’s ride through the depths of the house on a rollercoaster-like track.

The CGI for the ghosts is, as expected, not quite as sharp as it would’ve been in 1995, but Ricci and Pullman gamely play off the incorporeal characters and deliver strong performances. Pullman charmingly plays up James’ bumbling, well-meaning demeanor and turns him into far more than a grieving father dragging his daughter across the country to find ghosts.

At the time of Casper‘s release, Ricci had already memorably played Wednesday Addams in two movies, so there was little question of her talent as a young performer. Still, she excels as Kat, a girl on the verge of young adulthood trying to find her place in a world where ghosts exist and her mom is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. Through her, Casper tries to wrestle with some common YA subplots, and some are more successful than others.

Kat’s relationship with her dad is handled with a refreshing amount of nuance. On some level, she’s embarrᴀssed by what he does and resents him for it, but she also still loves him and is generally happy to spend time with him. Most of the teen angst is devoted to Kat’s struggles to fit in at school and gain traction with a budding crush.

The romantic side of Casper is where its age starts to show, beyond the aforementioned CGI. Though Casper ostensibly wants a friend, he develops a proper crush on Kat, and it leads to some perplexing, borderline uncomfortable moments. There’s still an innocence to their interactions that helps to gloss over any awkwardness, but it’s still likely to induce a cringe or two.

The final action-packed act of Casper also jumps off the rails a bit as Carrigan makes a grab for the treasure she believes is hidden within the house and Casper and Kat discover an invention meant to bring ghosts back to life. Silberling stages it all with a relentless energy that both keeps everything moving and runs the risk of giving viewers whiplash.

Casper is at its best when it’s focusing on the core relationships that give the movie its heart. Kat and Casper are both misfits in their own ways, yet they’re able to form a bond that literally transcends death. And even in the face of the inhumane — both with Casper’s prankster uncles and Carrigan’s insatiable greed — Kat and James remain a united front.

Though some of the action and plot developments lose sight of all that, the very end of Casper pulls it all together with a heartwarming conclusion — though it still can’t quite avoid the lingering oddness of the forced romance between Kat and Casper.

When it comes to the friendly ghost himself, though, it’s hard not to be endeared by his earnestness and kind-hearted nature. Pearson voices him with the right amount of warmth and enthusiasm, making you wish you could be his friend too. As a kick-off to the Halloween season, Casper remains the perfect watch for anyone looking for a throwback ghost tale rife with entertaining hijinks.

Casper will be re-released in theaters on Friday, October 3.