Imaginary (2024) Lionsgate/Horror RT: 104 minutes Rated PG-13 (some violent content, drug material, language) Director: Jeff Wadlow Screenplay: Jeff Wadlow, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland Music: Sparks & Shadows Cinematography: James McMillan Release date: March 8, 2024 (US) Cast: DeWanda Wise, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Tom Payne, Betty Buckley, Veronica Falcon, Samuel Salary, Matthew Sato, Alix Angelis, Wanetah Walmsley, Rhythm Hurd.
Rating: ** ½
While we were waiting for Imaginary to begin, my friend commented that he hoped it would be better than Night Swim. I replied that a blank screen would be an improvement over that wash-out of a horror film. His concerns are valid though. The last few titles from Blumhouse- The Exorcist: Believer, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Insidious: The Red Door and the aforementioned Night Swim- haven’t exactly been stellar. I’m sorry to say Imaginary continues this trend.
The trailer would have you believe Imaginary is about a killer teddy bear. It’s a little more complicated than that. More than just a routine Child’s Play knock-off, it weaves psychological drama into an already convoluted fabric. The plot centers on Jessica (Wise, Jurassic World Dominion), a children’s book author/illustrator who moves back into her childhood home with her new family, musician husband Max (Payne, The Walking Dead) and two daughters, moody teen Taylor (Burns, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers) and cute-as-a-button moppet Alice (Braun, Erin & Aaron). Things are already tense with Taylor giving her new mom a hard time and Jessica dealing with nightmares she doesn’t quite understand. She was hoping a change of scenery would make things better. No surprise, it made them worse.
While exploring her new digs, Alice finds an old teddy bear in the basement. She immediately bonds with her new friend, calling it Chauncey and carrying on conversations with it. Her parents couldn’t be happier; the kid is finally starting to come out of her shell. Yeah, the kid’s had it rough what with the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mentally ill bio-mom. It left scars, both physical and psychological. Maybe this new imaginary friend will help the healing process along. It couldn’t hurt. Wait a minute! Oh, yes it can!
It seems like a harmless game at first. Alice is conducting a scavenger hunt, collecting items on a list dictated to her by Chauncey. It soon becomes cause for concern when the kid tries to impale her hand on a rusty nail. She says it’s on the list to do something that hurts. If she gets everything she’s supposed to, her friend will take her on a “trip”. To where? I’ll get back to that.
Directed by Jeff Wadlow (Truth or Dare), Imaginary could have been something. It has an interesting premise and the story doesn’t go where you think it will. The problem lies in the execution. Simply put, it’s not scary. There’s little in the way of suspense and a disappointing lack of effective “BOO!” scenes. It’s like Wadlow went on his own scavenger hunt, collecting the usual horror tropes (e.g. fractured family unit, repressed childhood memories, weird elderly neighbor, possessed toy, etc.) and throwing them into the narrative in no particular order. To his credit, he does go somewhere with it all. It’s someplace we’ve been before…. sort of.
That brings us back to the “trip”. What’s the destination? It’s like this. At some point, Alice goes missing and the family- just Jessica and Taylor by this point, the dad is on tour with his band- goes crazy searching for her. It turns out they don’t have to go very far to find her. She never left the house, not exactly. If you’ve seen Poltergeist, then you know what I’m getting at. The only thing missing from this scenario is a miniscule medium beckoning the child into the light.
By no stretch of the imagination is Imaginary a good horror movie. It’s too tame. Due to the constraints put on it by its kid-friendly PG-13 rating, it can’t traumatize audiences too deeply (if at all) nor can it pile on the gore thus defeating the purpose of the genre. That’s not to say it isn’t interesting. It kind of is, sort of. The messy but predictable storyline held my attention throughout. And it is a mess, a confused one. The writers struggle to tell a coherent story ultimately dealing with the damage caused by trauma if left untreated. Jessica buried hers deep down and now it’s manifesting itself in a way that endangers her also traumatized stepdaughter. Wadlow takes his time getting to this point, choosing instead to dangle several plot threads before viewers for a while before tying them together rather loosely.
There are plot holes aplenty in Imaginary. The one that stands out most prominently involves Max who doesn’t play a big role in the events to come. He leaves to go on tour about midway through (if that) and is never heard from or heard of again. You’d think somebody would call him to tell him his kid is missing which would make him come rushing home from wherever he is. NOPE! What’s up with that?
The acting, like the direction, is rather flat. The liveliest performance comes from Betty Buckley (Split) as the aforementioned neighbor. She used to babysit Jessica when she was little. Jessica doesn’t remember her. She also doesn’t remember the bad thing that happened in the house, the reason she went to live with her grandmother, the thing that rendered her widowed father unable to care for her. In any event, it’s clear from the start this neighbor knows what happened and is waiting for the right time to bring it up. It’s also clear she’s a little off and will become completely unhinged by the time the climax rolls around. Braun and Burns are okay in their roles as stock characters. Wise doesn’t make much of an impression in the lead. She’s as forgettable as the rest of Imaginary.
In fairness, Imaginary isn’t a bad movie. It’s just an unremarkable, unmemorable one. It’s watchable though. It’s definitely better than Night Swim, but that’s not too high a bar to set now, is it?
