Imaginary – Movie Review
Director: Jeff Wadlow (The Curse of Bridge Hollow)
Writer: Greg Erb, Jason Oremland, Jeff Wadlow (Screenplay)
Cast
- DeWanda Wise (Jurassic World Dominion)
- Taegen Burns (I Can Only Imagine)
- Pyper Braun (Desperation Road)
- Betty Buckley (Split)
- Tom Payne (The Walking Dead)
- Veronica Falcon (Ozark)
Plot: A woman returns to her childhood home to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is very real and unhappy that she abandoned him.
Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Imaginary starts when Jessica (Wise) moves back into her childhood home with her new husband Max (Payne) and his children Taylor (Burns) and Alice (Braun). Jessica works from home and despite making a connection with the younger Alice, struggles to connect with Taylor. However, Alice makes a new friend Chauncey a teddy bear she found in the basement.
As the days go by, Jessica is happy to Alice happy again, until she starts acting a little bit stranger. She soon learns the truth about Chauncey and what he wants from the family and must protect her stepchildren from an evil presence.
Verdict on Imaginary
Imaginary is a horror movie that focuses on a family dealing with a vengeful imaginary friend. It follows the family trying to start a fresh life in an old family home, but the youngest member gets attached to the friend who wants a lot more from them.
This is a horror that builds on the concept of imaginary friends not always friendly. It has an interesting story dealing with loss and other childhood traumas being dealt with by Jessica, Taylor, and Alice. All at different ages and different processes. When it comes to what evil wants it takes us to a massive world which could have been borrowed from Insidious. Some of the creations are terrifying, but sadly we get a few too many false jump scares early on. The eerie presence is creepy, it is fun to see what might happen.
In the end, we do get the basic horror creation, with a father figure disappearing for work. We see the new family struggling to connect which lets something evil invade their lives is a tried and tested formula. It has good scares and you can have a good time watching. However, it won’t become many people’s favorite horror movie of the year.
Final Thoughts –Imaginary is fun in places and has terrifying creations.