

Carrigan Crittenden is the main antagonist of the 1995 Casper feature film.

She is portrayed by Cathy Moriarty.

Carrigan is an extremely nasty, cruel, spoiled, mean, self-absorbed, clever, abrasive, roguish, relentless, independent, grouchy, ambitious, negative, conscientious, responsible, ill-tempered, thoughtless, treacherous, efficient, narrow-minded, determined, evil, nefarious and callous woman. Her late father had a huge fortune, but he didn't leave any of it to her, which deeply angers her. Therefore, upon discovering that Whipstaff Manor the old mansion that he did leave to her may contain treasure, she becomes obsessed with possessing the treasure for herself. At the end of the film, she dies and becomes a ghost, but is tricked into crossing over.

She is unmarried as evidenced by the fact that she is referred to as "Miss Crittenden." The fact that her father owned Whipstaff Manor seems to indicate that either she and Casper are distantly related or that someone in her family bought the mansion from someone in his. In her ghostly form, she tended to use stereotypical "evil laughter" frequently, although the only time she used it when she was alive was when she was trying to run Dibs down with her car.

Casper

First appearance

Carrigan is shown to be a selfish and cruel woman. She is furious to learn from her late father Mr. Crittenden's lawyer Mr. Rugg that she has only inherited Whipstaff Manor in her father's will, rather than anything of significant value. 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. They both leave to find Whipstaff Manor at a town called Friendship, Maine.

Arriving at Whipstaff Manor.

Carrigan and Dibs visit the old manor, but find it is haunted by four ghosts: Casper, a friendly but lonely young ghost and his three obnoxious uncles known as The Ghostly Trio: Stretch, Stinkie, and Fatso. The two make several attempts to remove the spirits, but are unsuccessful.

Later while she's resting at a nearby motel, 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 unfinshed business. Looking at the news report Carrigan decides to contact Dr Harvey.

Carrigan and Dibs meet with Dr Harvey and his daughter Katheen "Kat" Harvey at the manor. Carrigan orders Dr. Harvey to remove the ghosts as quickly as possible. 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.

The Lazarus

Carrigan and Dibs return back to the manor later on as they 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 them to enter the house and they start looking around for the treasure. Inside, she and Dibs find Casper and Kat running through the halls. Hearing Casper talking about his dad 'hiding something,' they assume he's referring to the treasure. Carrigan rejoices in this news by kissing Dibs on the lips before following Casper and Kat. They follow Casper and Kat to Casper's father's laboratory hidden under the floorboards of the library. There they learn that a special capsule 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 point's it in the direction while talking with Casper. Seeing as that's where the treasure is Carrigan and Dibs apporoach the vault but finds its locked. 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 and Casper is left disappointed when he turns into an egg yolk.

Death and becoming a ghost

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 use the Lazarus to come back to life. Unable to decide who should die, the two attempt to kill each other, resulting in Carrigan trying to run Dibs over with their car. This attempt fails and ends with Carrigan crashing into a tree and getting caught in the air sack. She furiously pushes away the sack and forces the car door open. Not realizing it was hanging over the side of a cliff, she falls screaming to her death.

Dibs arrives moments later at the cliff trying to see if Carrigan has become a ghost, but it appears not. Dibs turns away to leave seemingly unbothered by Carrigan’s death.

She suddenly reappears as shadow of a monstrous ghost to a shocked Dibs and says "not so fast little man the b**ch is back!!". Surprisingly unphased at her own death and in fact somewhat pleased that she will have the powers needed to get the treasure.

Carrigan's Ghost

Back at the laboratory Kat uses a dust bellow to reinflate Casper. Carrigan suddenly appears as a monstrous ghost, flies into the laboratory and grabs the treasure chest inside the vault. Casper is in shock claiming that its his treasure but Carrigan bellows "you mean MY!! treasure" Kat is shocked to see Miss Crittenden as a ghost, wondering how and when she could have done this to herself so soon. ”Miss Crittenden?” Kat asks somewhat rhetoricalply as Carrigan’s voice, bright blonde bob haircut and facial features make it pretty clear that this is in fact the heiress. Carrigan replies "in the flesh...well in a couple of minutes", and laughs satiricaly at her own morbid situation as if it dosent bother her. Dibs soon reappears on the up and at’em machine, startling Carrigan and causing her to question what he’s doing. She already seems to be suffering from the affects of ghostly amnesia only moments after dying. Dibs shows Carrigan the capusle to help her remember. Kat realizes that Dibs stole the capsule and claims it's Casper's. Carrigan laughs and disagrees again as she orders Dibs 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 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 its her turn in the oven. She orders Dibs to turn her human again, but he turns on her saying that they are through and that he will be using the treasure in a great big expensive house with lovely purple wall paper and great big green carpets and adopt a little dog called Carrigan "a b**ch just like you". Carrigan gasps as she watches Dibs act as if he is going to smash the capsule. Her only chance of ever coming back to life. Feeling helpless at the thought of being stuck as a ghost. She tells him that she won’t forget this double cross and as a ghost she will haunt him. Dibs laughs at her threat knowing that she won’t be capable of much as a ghost. Mostly he just enjoys the fact that after all the years of her treating him like dirt, now she was dead and couldn’t enjoy her treasure. He proclaims that he's got the power and he's got the treasure which prompts her to angrily fling him out a window. Carrigan catches the capsule in mid air and arrogantly turns to Kat and Casper daring them to stand up against her too. Casper and Kat point out that people only become ghosts because they have "unfinished business" and ask Carrigan what hers is. Carrigan dosent understand what they are implying and arrogantly and naively declares that she has no unfinished business, saying that she has her treasure and her mansion "i have everything im just perfect" She does an evil laugh again but this suddenly causes her to cross-over to the afterlife against her will. She gasps as her pale ghost body continues crossing over. The reality of being permanently dead and gone for eternity terrifiying her, she tries taking back her words but it is too late. Realizing she's been tricked she berates Casper and Kat until she finally explodes. (which was just as well because the so-called "treasure" she sought would've been worthless to her anyway, as it was only a baseball autographed by Casper's favorite sports player, Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers).

Trivia

Carrigan is the only main villain in a Casper film who is a normal human being, rather than 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 of the films who is a female.

film who is a normal human being, rather than 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 of the films who is a female. Carrigan never intended to turn herself into a ghost. Even though she stole the Lazarus capsule, she still didn’t know what allowed some people to stay behind as ghosts when they died while the vast majority others just were able to pass on. Herself dying would be too risky if for some reason she didnt become a ghost. She decides to test it on Dibs to see if she can kill him and turn into a ghost to get the treasure for her. The plan doesn’t work out as she accidentally falls to her death. While Dibs is up top calling for her, Carrigan ghost rises up from her corpse. It takes her a couple seconds to realize that she is dead and a ghost. Then she flies up to show Dibs that she is back.

Carrigan is also different from the other ghosts. The Trio and Casper are all featureless white ghosts. Carrigan however is wearing a skin tight black body suit with a plunging neckline and busty chest. Her blonde bob hairstyle is perfectly shaped. Her four fingered ghostly claws also have long bright red nail polish. She has black eyeshadow and thick black eyebrows and red lipstick contrasting her now porcelain skin complexion.

Carrigan never own that she has died and crosses over for a baseball. She assumes the whole time it is gold or something she can use as money. The dark humor satire of the ending points out that Carrigan has wasted her life and is dead and gone forever all for nothing.

Cathy Moriarty would later play another character in a later Casper movie. She played Gerti one of Wendy's aunts in Casper Meets Wendy.

Gallery

Carrigan Demands an Answer Carrigan threatning to sue the law office Carrigan and Dibs enter Whipstaff Manor Carrigan demands answer from a mysterious inhabitant inside the mansion. Carrigan and Dibs Carrigan tries to kill Dibs in order to have his ghost to retrieve the mansion's treasure. Carrigan trying to run over Dibs. Carrigan returns as a ghost Carrigan becoming furious when Dibs turns on her. Carrigan explodes as she finally crosses over Carrigan realizes she's been tricked as she crosses over. Carrigan getting a face full of airbag after ramming a tree while trying to kill Dibs.

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