Imaginary (2024)
Directed by: Jeff Wadlow
Premise: A family moves into their step-mother’s childhood home. The youngest daughter (Pyper Braun) becomes attached to a stuffed bear and strange phenomena occurs around the house.
What Works: In the final stretch of the story, Imaginary pushes into surreal territory. The film becomes more than a haunted house tale as the characters travel into a fantastical world. The turn of events expands the scope of the story and takes it in the direction of fairytales like Coraline which suits the themes of childhood play and visualizes how children blend their imagination and the real world together.
What Doesn’t: Unfortunately, the fantastic push at the end of Imaginary is too little too late. Much of the rest of the picture is entirely familiar, working off of demonic and haunted house clichés. It’s not scary, even within the boundaries of a PG-13 horror picture, and Imaginary is poorly made. The imagery is murky throughout, even in scenes that take place during the day, but the darkness of the movie doesn’t add to its tone. Images are frequently indecipherable and portions of Imaginary are simply unwatchable. The performances are not very good. The family rarely feels convincing which is partly a result of the casting but also a script in which characters don’t behave consistently or credibly. When the younger daughter goes missing her family members don’t act with any urgency or look for her in logical places. The makeup on actress DeWanda Wise is frequently too much; Wise’s character always looks like she just got out of a professional makeup session. It’s distracting, especially because so little of this movie is involving. The end of the picture is artificially drawn out with false endings and last-minute twists. It’s tagged on in a way that suggests a reshoot and comes across as a desperate attempt to raise interest in an utterly uninteresting film.
Disc extras: Commentary track and featurette.
Bottom Line: Imaginary fail on virtually every level. It’s not scary, recycles haunted house clichés, has lousy performances, and is amateurishly made.
Episode: #1019 (October 27, 2024)