Directed and written by Jeff Wadlow (The Curse of Bridge Hollow), with help in the writing department coming from Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, Imaginary is a 2024 horror movie that follows a children’s author as she learns of her step-daughter’s sinister imaginary friend.
Having been waiting in crushing excitement for the movie’s release, since it’s announcement in February of 2023, I was over the proverbial moon when the release date finally dawned on us. However, I was soon to learn that all of my child-like excitement was all for nothing, as Imaginary failed to inspire, scare or even hold my attention.
Imaginary – The Storyline
When children’s author and illustrator, Jessica, moves to her childhood home, she is looking forward to leaving the home in which nightmares pertaining to her work plague her slumber. Hoping to see the back of what dwells within her dreams, she and her family make an early move. However, unbeknownst to her, she is moving from nightmares that exist only when she sleeps and into a new, very real horror.
Shortly after moving into their new home, Alice, Jessica’s youngest step-daughter, finds a stuffed bear named ‘Chauncy’, who seemingly becomes her imaginary friend. Believing the child is going through normal childhood motions, Jessica finds her new friendship to be cute, harmless and not beyond the realms of the ordinary. As the movie rolls on, it becomes increasingly clear that sinister forces are afoot and all is not what it seems with the newfound friendship that Alice shares with the Chauncy.
Chauncy the Bear – Potential SPOILER Alert!
As Imaginary begins to draw to a close, it’s revealed that Chauncy isn’t what he at first seems. Rather than living in the imagination of Alice, through the bear, we find out that the furry dude is actually just a harmless bear. However, Chauncy does in fact exist and is the remnants of Jessica’s own childhood imaginary friend – only this particular buddy of the mind has manifested into something very real.
‘CB’ as Jessica once called him has an evil penchant for encouraging children to embark on a ghastly scavenger hunt, in which they need to collect the items needed to open ‘the Blue Door’, a portal to a strange dimension where anything is possible through the powers of imagination. It’s not all sunshine and roses, though and this other world, nicknamed ‘The Never Ever’ has a dark and deadly purpose under the shining veneer of sunshine and roses.
Imaginary Starts with Promise Before Taking its Foot Right Off the Gas
Imaginary holds no punches in the opening scene. With Jessica being chased through the house by an unseen entity, we’re promised an action-packed movie, teeming with horror elements and ghostly apparitions. However, it soon becomes apparent that these opening minutes serve solely to lull us into a very false sense that we’re in for one hell of a ride.
Sadly, this is where the movie slows right down to a point of almost stopping. With just a few tiny snippets of horror sparsely dotted through its 105-minute runtime, Imaginary fast becomes tedious, slow and shares the pace of a lazy snail.
Imaginary – Summary
While Imaginary does have its moments, they are very few and far between. With so much promise in the movie’s opening stage, the disappointment that followed was somewhat amplified. There’s simply not enough to bridge the gap between the start and the surprisingly good ending. Imaginary is a classic example of movies adding needless fluff to extend on the runtime, for no real reason whatsoever.
If you’re looking to dabble in a little abject boredom for nearly two hours, you can watch Imaginary now on Prime Video.
