Imaginary

My wife and I attended a screening of the Blumhouse film Imaginary (2024) last night. The storyline revolves around a woman with a tragic past who marries a man with two children, all moving into the stepmother's childhood home. As they attempt to adapt to their new life, the ghosts from their past, both figuratively and literally, resurface.

Directed by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2), the film stars DeWanda Wise (Jurassic World Dominion), Thomas Payne (The Walking Dead), Taegen Burns (The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers), Pyper Braun (Erin & Aaron), and Betty Buckley (Split).

Despite its potential with all of the worthwhile elements, the movie falls short in putting everything together. While the family dynamic and characters are well-established, the revelation of the plot's intricacies causes the film to unravel. DeWanda Wise delivers a solid performance, and Pyper Braun's child acting feels authentic. The horror elements show promise with a few effective jump scares and one notable, albeit more fun than good, kill scene. However, the poorly written and overacted character of the old lady detracts from the overall experience. The film's conclusion, despite a couple of clever twists, fails to salvage the narrative.

In conclusion, Imaginary possesses the ingredients for a worthwhile horror film but falters in execution. I'd give it a 4/10 and recommend skipping it.

There are many horror flicks with evil-infested dolls or puppets, but you keep hoping for something different. Alas, this "Imaginary" is as generic and predictable as they come: the little kid in a home with some complicated family-dynamics, the house with a creepy history, the cute doll (here a teddybear) that we at times (oh horror!!) see turn his head and that more and more gets a supernatural hold on the kid, and a climactic finale in which the evil finally shows its true terrifying shape. It's all there.

Well, even predictability doesn't have to be bad, if it's well done, with some decent special effects and a solid story. But unfortunately all this was not the case here. The story is shaky and unnecessary complicated, and direction and editing are disappointing: the whole movie is way too talkative and explanatory (especially from the moment the old neighbor lady steps in), and for a supposed horror movie it's way too low on serious scares. Teddybear Chauncey is definitely no Chucky or Annabelle, until the final showdown he doesn't cause any deaths or destruction, even the obnoxious boyfriend (in most horror movies a number one candidate for a gruesome killing) got away in one piece. There's an inventive plot-twist halfway in time, and the supernatural Escher-like labyrinth, in which the family in the end gets trapped to fight the evil, is well done, but that couldn't save the movie. A pity, since the acting was pretty good. The cast had earned a better vehicle to ride in.

Really terrible on all fronts from the acting, shoddy editing, weird production design and bad writing. I used to have so much respect for Dewanda Wise but this movie made her look really bad. Felt like she just showed up and learned her lines that morning, random emotional scenes that felt out of place and acting on par with melodramatic lifetime movies. There was zero chemistry between all the actors. Worst casting was the father who kept falling in and out of his accent from American to Australian. I did not buy him as a father at all, and the age difference did not feel authentic. Dewanda just felt like she was showing up for her check, she needs to fire her agent. The cinematography felt too much like a TV movie with special effects that looked like a 90's Disney film like "Don't Look Under the Bed." I got whiplash from the dark scenes transitioning straight to bright sunlight. The film was laughably bad, I'm shocked it made it into theaters. There was not a single good performance in this film. Teenagers in the theatre kept chatting and playing on their phones and laughing, which tells me even more that nobody was invested in this mediocre film.

I didn't buy for a second that any of the characters ever cared about one another. Teenage daughter was a clichè stereotype I've seen so many times, nothing fresh or intriguing. I did not buy for a second Dewanda cared about those kids and there was zero chemistry akin to actors talking to a pillow because nothing genuine bounced between them. Just flat and forced emotion that was never earned.

3 out of 5 stars.

Imaginary is a fair supernatural horror film with a concept about children's imaginary friends becoming some evil entity in a spirit world. Its a bit of poltergeist like film. The film has some cheesy dialogue and it lacks the scares and horror. Which it could have added jump scares and be a little intense to make this film worthy.

The plot follows Jessica (DeWanda Wise) as she and her new family with her step children move into her old childhood home. After a tragedy happened with her and her father at the house that left her dad speechless and traumatized. Her step daughter Alice comes across a teddy bear which she makes out to be an imaginary friend which becomes very sinister.

The cast ensemble was okay. The story was decent. The script was a bit cheesy with the dialogue. And the direction with Jeff Wadlow has been lacking with providing any scares or intensity. Yes the characters come across something evil and the way it was filmed. It failed to even put you on the edge of your seat. Interesting concept but failed to execute the scares.

Overall, it was an okay film that failed to deliver on scares and thrills.

I don't know that anything could convince me that AI wasn't heavily involved with writing this. It's offensively bad. It's a boring concept, the bear is the least threatening thing I've ever seen, the plot barely exists, and it's way too long. I'd call it comically bad, but that would imply a "so bad it's good" sort of movie. It's almost insulting that Blumhouse is able to get away with making movies like this into a full theatrical release.

I hate this movie and everything that it represents. This is the laziest, most boring thing I've seen in ages, and there are people somewhere in Hollywood making millions of of it. Bleh.