Image via Universal Pictures
Published Oct 17, 2026, 7:15 PM EDT
Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.
Sign in to your Collider account
The 1990s saw many a defining film star burst onto the scene, from Leonardo DiCaprio becoming a sensation for What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and This Boy's Life to Julia Roberts solidifying her A-list status through Pretty Woman. Among those to establish themselves during the decade was Christina Ricci, who broke out in 1991 playing Wednesday Addams in the family comedy hit The Addams Family. Just two years later, she'd return with the rest of her creepy and kooky co-stars for Addams Family Values, earning even greater critical acclaim and cementing her as a rising star. Her roles on-screen would only continue to multiply from there, from Ang Lee's The Ice Storm to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Tim Burton's Oscar-winning dark fantasy Sleepy Hollow.
More recently, Ricci has been a fixture on the small screen, reuniting with Burton and returning to the Addams Family world for Netflix's Wednesday. This November will also see her return as Misty for the fourth and final season of Yellowjackets on the Paramount+ Premium plan. With spooky season underway, though, another of her '90s family favorites is currently haunting the streaming charts once more as viewers get into the Halloween spirit. It's also coming off a milestone anniversary that brought the supernatural film back to theaters.
1995's Casper rose from the grave and all the way up to #6 in the U.S. among Disney+'s movies, sandwiched between this year's Toy Story 5 and the original Moana. It's been a fixture there, remaining on the film charts since the calendar flipped over to October. The supernatural family comedy, marking the feature debut of the titular friendly ghost, launched into theaters with a mixed reception from critics and audiences, but still managed to earn a solid $290 million at the box office. Since then, viewers have turned it into somewhat of a holiday staple for all ages thanks to its special effects and a strong cast featuring Ricci as Kat Harvey, a young teenage girl who befriends Casper (Malachi Pearson) when she and her father (Bill Pullman) move into the haunted Whipstaff Manor and need to get rid of the ghosts that reside there. Cathy Moriarty, Eric Idle, Brad Garrett, Joe Nipote, Devon Sawa, and Joe Alaskey also star.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Child's Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)
FIND YOUR NIGHTMARE →
01
Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.
ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.
AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.
ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.
AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.
AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.
AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.
ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.
AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep.
REVEAL MY NIGHTMARE →
The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.
Elm Street
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.
- Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
- You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage.
- These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
- You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Chucky
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
- Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
- You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
- The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults.
- By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Scream
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
- Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party.
- You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films.
- The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
- Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
- The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
- Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
- This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
- Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
'Casper' Is About to Make a Major Comeback With Steven Spielberg
The friendly ghost's recent success on the Disney streamer comes as the Mouse House is working to resurrect Casper in a new form. Back in April, it was reported that a live-action CGI hybrid reimagining of Casper the Friendly Ghost had landed at the platform for development, with Goosebumps alumni Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston helming the project. Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin Entertainment banner produced the 1995 film, is also involved as an executive producer. Although it's early in the development process, the plans are to give this version of the spirit a darker edge. Considering Brad Silberling's movie was noted for its grim decision to portray Casper as a deceased child, it may be a fitting successor to the classic.
Casper is now streaming on Disney+. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on all the hottest streaming shows and movies throughout the year.
Release Date May 26, 1995
Runtime 100 minutes
