Horror Movie Review: Imaginary (2024)

Blumhouse sure are spitting them out now, aren’t they? Which, as anyone knows, means diminishing results and while Imaginary isn’t a terrible film by any stretch, it is sorely lacking in imagination. It’s the epitome of dull and uninspired horror.

Directed by Jeff Wadlow, who co-wrote it with Greg Erb and Jason Oremland. The film stars DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, and Veronica Falcon.

Jessica had a troubled childhood, one that she has little memory of, but one that left both mental and physical scars on her. She has grown into a well-adjusted children’s book author (aside from the nightmares) and has married Max, who comes with his own troubled past. Namely an ex-wife who had a serious mental breakdown and has been institutionalised.

Something that heavily affected his two daughters from that marriage, the young Alice, and teenager Taylor. Jessica struggles to connect to the two girls, in particular the older Taylor, but loves them both. Which is why the entire family end up moving into Jessica’s childhood home when her ill father is confined to a nursing home.

It’s the start of a new life for the family, but Jessica’s past is embedded in the walls of this house, and it’s about to catch up with her. Of course, the connection being the younger child Alice, who finds a teddy bear she calls Chauncey and begins to treat it like her best friend. Talking to it, taking instructions from it, and even giving it a voice.

It’s just kids being kids, right? After all, as the adults like to say non-stop throughout… every kid has an imaginary friend.

Not like this, not to the extent that Alice does and it, like so many moments, stretches the level of believability to breaking point. Which, in a film called Imaginary, wouldn’t be too much of a problem if everything else was creative enough to make the experience more surreal. Unfortunately, Imaginary takes a tired supernatural route with a story that has been told countless times before. Then, decides to get a bit weird near the end, but again, doesn’t commit to anything that would be called notable.

The story just isn’t interesting, but neither are the characters. Just look at the family. We have Jessica, an individual with a haunting past that she must face, while finding a way to connect to her two step-children. Spoilers: she will. We have Taylor, who is a caricature of a teenager. Angry at the world, her dad, and Jessica. Then we have Alice, the cute horror kid who speaks and acts like a child much older than her age. Before we come to Max, who hilariously, exists the film early on to go on tour with his band. They’re bad characters, and the acting often reflects that.

However, they’re not given much to work with here. There is very little chemistry between anyone, so much of the dialogue is wooden, and secondary characters are there to spout exposition only. Betty Buckley’s Gloria, the neighbour and former babysitter of Jessica, is comically included for this reason only.

DeWanda Wise tries hard to give Jessica some life, but her emotional scenes feel really forced. Whereas, Pyper Braun (Alice) is clearly talented, but her character is so one-note, it’s hard to care.

How about the horror though? After all, this is Blumhouse and they know horror.

Unfortunately, the horror aspects of Imaginary might be the worst part of a film that can be called lacklustre through and through. Think of every supernatural horror cliché that you can, and chances are, you will have picked out most of Imaginary’s scares.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the actual imaginary friend part of things is simply not scary. The effects are surprisingly lifeless. They could have done so much here. After all, it’s a child’s imagination. So, what should have been a chance to go wild, be vivid and bold, ends up being wholly uninteresting.

To cap off an experience not worth having, Imaginary has a really tedious pace too. It’s not a long film, but it feels it.