Imaginary

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It's hard to know what to feel about this one, altogether. If one refers to a lot of reviews and criticisms about the film, they'll see that it's not going all too well. And while I completely understand where these criticisms are coming from, as I have quite a few, myself, I can't deny that there were bits and pieces about this that I DID enjoy, even if it's on a level of "guilty pleasure." Looking at the overall spirit of things, it feels like they were trying to tip their hat to such 80s horror titles as 'Nightmare on Elm Street' to some degree.

Having said that, one should "bear" in mind that there are aspects of this movie that I have a certain bias towards, but that doesn't mean these things were necessarily executed well, either. This is one of those movies that feels like it's one thing for about half of it, and then it switches into something completely different, not quite feeling like the same movie. The first half is reminiscent of movies like 'Child's Play' or 'Annabelle' in which this teddy bear known as Chauncey just kinda sits there, and it's up to the kid who has befriended him to freak the audience out.

The film centres on a new stepmom/children's author named Jessica (DeWanda Wise) who is trying her best in her role. But while the young Alice (Pyper Braun) is friendly with her, the typical (and annoyingly bratty) teenager, Taylor isn't a fan. After a series of horrible nightmares involving her own creations, keeping her and her husband, Max (Tom Payne) awake at ungodly hours, they decide to move the family into Jessica's childhood home in an attempt to calm things down. To no one's real surprise, Taylor isn't entirely on-board, but Alice keeps things civil.

It's not long before Alice discovers a teddy bear (Chauncey) in the house's basement and forms a bond with him. According to her, Chauncey makes up a scavenger hunt for Alice to complete, which actually consists of a pretty controversial list, and long story short, like any film like this, things go off the rails fairly quickly with a concerned adult/parent, a kid who doesn't understand or know any better, and the kid's imaginary friend/doll/toy who is secretly pulling all of the seemingly supernatural strings. So yeah, this is something we've seen done before, done better, and becomes altogether pretty predictable.

In my opinion, what kind of adds to it is when their neighbour, Gloria (Betty Buckley) comes into the picture with memories of babysitting Jessica, and a whole big conspiracy theory about imaginary friends and the world they come from. I really don't wanna spoil much here, but I will say that this is where I get reflections of concepts from 'Nightmare on Elm Street', and I have to give the film at least a little credit for creativity. The problem is that it's too much too fast, changing the film's tone, completely. and just because I thought they made some creative choices doesn't make it altogether good.

Critically, I'm not a fan of how the film handled the kids' real mother (Alix Angelis) who in some ways felt kind of crow-barred in to add some level of horror to things while not entirely adding anything to the plot. If I'm honest, a lot of the writing is kinda rough too, and they seem to go a little too far with Taylor's mouthiness sometimes. I get that she's supposed to be a bratty teenager, but it's also evident that she cares a great deal for Alice and will do anything to help her, so they could have done better with giving us a reason to route for her.

I do, however, like some of the concepts they put into the second half of the movie, and I have to say, I am fan of some of the creature design here once things do get going. It's a tricky one to navigate. On one hand, it's creative and even sometimes kinda fun. But on the other hand, I'd be hard-pressed to call this a "good" movie. It's one I can't really recommend one way or the other, and I'd say it'd probably be better to await streaming. But I'd still argue it's passable for someone dipping their toes into the horror genre, especially when, at times, it delivers some corny laughs. At best, it's probably just a guilty pleasure.

2/5

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