Imaginary is a horror movie that follows DeWanda Wise as Jessica, who has to confront an old, imaginary friend from her past to protect her new family. Imaginary follows in M3gan’s footsteps as a Blumhouse movie with a basic plot and a more memorable antagonist, Chauncey the Bear.
As I said in my Night Swim review, I have a love-hate relationship with Blumhouse as some movies are great, and others, to put it bluntly, just don’t have the juice. What I mean is they have no flair, no heart, and no staying power. At best they’re movies you see on Netflix or Max and you put them on when you’re not in the mood to pay attention to anything. Imaginary falls into the latter, but I’ll give it credit for being better than Night Swim.
One thing I liked about this movie is that DeWanda Wise buys into the story. On the surface, it’s a goofy movie idea. But because she cared and tried to be a believable, concerned stepmom, I can respect that none of the movie’s faults are her own. I don’t think anyone else really brought it like she did so she deserves recognition.
Chauncey the Bear is a fun little villain. I liked him better when he was still a teddy bear and would subtly move around than his physical form but he was still fun. I thought it was a good choice to have him speak through Alice, it added a level of creepiness.
Another thing I liked is that the movie at least tries to throw the viewer off guard. About halfway through the movie, we find out only Jessica and the youngest daughter Alice can see something, which is the catalyst of the whole movie. We learn that Jessica was in a similar place as Alice when she was younger and that’s why Chauncey is targeting them. We also get a twist towards the end that legitimately caught me off guard, as I was already raising my seat.
The problem with the fakeout ending is it’s never explained how or why it happens. Sometimes they might do the “she was just dreaming and she’s still stuck” but here they never explain why she was still stuck in the place after showing her escape, seconds earlier. This is a common theme in this movie and an issue I have with a lot of Blumhouse movies.
They have unique ideas, make no mistake about it. But they’re almost always half-baked like they take the idea and do nothing to explore it deeper. They then sprinkle in a common emotion, most times grief and moving on from a loved one, and don’t explore that any deeper as well. They keep to their formula and I think the movies suffer because of that. You know how the story goes no matter what movie they put out. Maybe it’s them putting too much on the writers and directors to fit their ideas into their blueprint but it just doesn’t work.
Worse of all, the movies aren’t scary. I want to scream it from the mountains but if there are any studio heads, directors, or producers reading this, LOUD DOES NOT EQUAL SCARY! Maybe I just watch too many movies so I am numb to it, but these movies are notorious for the most predictable jumpscares imaginable. Imaginary isn’t any different, but they also didn’t try a lot of them. A lot of the “scary” moments are just seeing a demon in the background, who does nothing, and then just disappears before the characters can see them.
The movie isn’t particularly gory either, as there’s only one kill and it’s off-screen. It is also maybe one of the worst characters I think I’ve ever watched. They introduce Jessica’s old babysitter who saw what had happened to her and became jealous that she didn’t go to the imaginary land with her. She devotes HER ENTIRE LIFE to researching what happens and tricks Jessica and the other daughter Taylor into going back with her. When she was debriefing them about what she learned, all I could think was why is she here, why and how she knew so much, and how the hell Chauncey, who’s been clinging to Alice, managed to convince her to play the trick on Jessica.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I could go on and on about why these Blumhouse movies do nothing for me. Whether it’s the decision to stay PG-13 or just they don’t want to mess with the formula, they just don’t grasp me like they used to. Imaginary is fine and will likely be a movie I keep on in the background, but it’s not a movie I really need to see again.
