Film

Imaginary [Film Review]

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Mar 10, 2024

7 min read

Imaginary Released: March 14, 2024Director: Jeff WadlowWriter: Jeff Wadlow, Greg Erb, Jason OremlandStarring: DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Betty BuckleyI’m at a point now that when I hear Blumhouse has a new horror movie coming out, it isn’t filling me with excitement. As much as I’m grateful for all the horror films they produce and the fact Jason Blum lets young filmmakers have creative freedom with their movies, there seems to be more misses than hits when it comes to Blumhouse productions - and when a trip to the cinema is costing you a stupid sum of money, you want to have a good time and feel like it was money well spent. But, there have been some great horror movies about inanimate objects in the past so I went in with my expectations set low and hoped to have a bit of fun.[gallery size="large" columns="2" ids="https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/chauncey-pyper-braun-imaginary-march73.jpg|Pyper Braun as Alice jn Imaginary. Photo Credit: Parrish Lewis,https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pyper-braun-veronica-falcn-imaginary-march7.jpg|Pyper Braun as Alice and and Veronica Falcon as Dr. Soto in Imaginary. Photo Credit: Parrish Lewis"]The movie revolves around Jessica [DeWanda Wise], an author and artist, wife to Max [Tom Payne] and stepmother to his two children Taylor [Taegen Burns] and Alice [Pyper Braun]. Waking from another nightmare, seemingly related to Jessica's children’s book about a spider, they decide to move into her old childhood home earlier than planned, hoping a fresh start will help clear her mind. Things take an interesting turn though during a game of Hide and Seek when Alice finds a stuffed teddy bear in the basement named Chauncey and they quickly become inseparable. What begins as a cute little girl with an imaginary friend starts to become more sinister when she starts working on a scavenger hunt list given to her by the stuffed animal. If she completes everything on the list, Chauncey will take her to a special place but it's secret and adults aren't allowed to play. It starts off simple like finding a paintbrush and ’something happy’ and escalates to ’something you will get in trouble for’ and ’something that hurts’. Once completed, Alice is able to enter this special place. With the help of their elderly neighbour Gale [Betty Buckley] who used to babysit Jessica when she was a little girl, Jessica does the scavenger hunt herself so they can enter the world and rescue Alice.One scene which was a big “holy shit!” moment for me was ruined immediately afterwards. After Alice has tried to impale her hand on a rusty nail, Jessica brings in Alice’s psychologist for a session and we see Alice arguing with her bear. While it starts off looking like Alice is doing all of the talking, Alice turns around no longer speaking but the ‘bear’ voice continues. The psychologist rushes out to ask Jessica if Alice has taken up any new hobbies, like ventriloquism. The writers tried to include a few jokes throughout the film, but this was the only one anybody laughed at. It was a chilling scene and 10 year old Pyper Braun did an outstanding job of being terrified and heartbroken by this teddy bear, but sadly minutes later we find out the bear doesn’t actually exist, it’s a figment of Alice, and apparently Jessica’s imaginations.[gallery size="large" columns="2" ids="https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/chauncey-pyper-braun-imaginary-march7.jpg|,https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/MV5BN2ViYTVlMDUtMDgxMC00MWRlLTgxMzEtOTI4Y2NhMTEyOWIxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTkxNjUyNQ@@._V1_.jpg|"]Imaginary has a few plot holes that I felt could have used an explanation. A few scenes have an emphasis on Alice's burn scar, something that’s clearly an issue for her but we never find out how she got it. Same as we know the girls' mother isn’t in the picture, but after finding her in the house one afternoon she’s taken away by ambulance. Explaining what is wrong with their mother could have added another layer to the storyline if a psychotic disorder could be a possible reason Alice can see and speak to an imaginary bear.In the past couple of weeks I have watched a stupid amount of horror movies about toys, some of them a flashback to my childhood, and in retrospect, it probably wasn’t a great idea because I was judging Imaginary pretty harshly as I watched it. I grew up in the 80-90’s where dolls were demonic little fuckers with a love for killing. They were foul-mouthed and the killing sprees were bloody and imaginative. I guess I was expecting this to be a psychotic version of Ted but we don’t see Chauncey talk, he barely moves and the only death scene is off-screen. It’s one of the most PG horror movies I have ever watched and I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing, but I would say I’m not the target audience and this is definitely a gateway film for tweens who are interested in watching horror movies. There’s one ‘jumpscare’ moment (which is in the trailer) but overall there’s nothing that’s going to traumatise your kid if you let them watch this despite the 15+ rating. Overall the film is meant to be about childhood trauma and overcoming it but I think they missed the mark on that one.Rating: 2.5/5Review by Katie Torrance