Imaginary review
Blumhouse’s latest lacks the energy to cover for its too safe story.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Imaginary
Directed by Jeff Wadlow
Screenplay by Greg Erb, Jason Oremland and Jeff Wadlow
Starring DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Veronica Falcón, Betty Buckley, Alix Angelis, Dane DiLiegro and Eduardo Campirano
Imaginary Review
There are a lot of ways that mainstream horror releases can go wrong. No…I’m not talking about PG-13 ratings. There are plenty of examples of good PG-13 horror movies. It does take away some of the “danger” involved. You aren’t likely to see something that shocks you…but that has never been a prerequisite for a quality horror film. The number one pitfall of mainstream horror has always been…boredom. The core audience isn’t going to fall for any of the tricks. They’ve been hardened by years of fandom. Movies that aren’t interested in pushing outside of a safe box to appeal to masses are going to have a hard time catching their attention. Sometimes a concept (or clever marketing) will catch on, and you’ll have a hit like M3GAN. Other times you end up with a milquetoast affair like Night Swim. Imaginary belongs to the latter camp.
Jessica (DeWanda Wise) moves into her childhood home with her husband and two stepchildren. When the youngest, Alice (Pyper Braun), starts talking to an imaginary friend…Jessica is forced to confront lost memories from her own childhood.
Imaginary has a few good ideas to play with. Unfortunately, it takes forever to get to them. This is a slow movie. It tries to allow us the time to get to know the characters…but presents us with one-dimensional ones. This isn’t the fault of the cast. They’re doing what they can. The story becomes more interesting after a mid-story reveal. There is a big idea for the third act that works great on paper and offers a needed shakeup. Like the rest of the story, however, it doesn’t go far enough. Mostly, Imaginary plays things too safely.
For example, if you’ve seen the trailer for Imaginary, you may remember it was built around Alice doing a scavenger hunt set up by her imaginary friend. The teased payoff sees Alice trying to accomplish her final task by doing something that will hurt herself. It’s a find idea that shows us the danger of Alice’s new friendship. A good scene on paper. In practice, this takes like half the movie. Not…it doesn’t start until halfway through the movie…it takes that long. Alice has her checklist soon after the family moves into their new home. It doesn’t get finished for a long, long time.
Much of Imaginary feels like it’s waiting around for something to happen. Something does happen, eventually. By the time it does, however, you may have checked out of the movie. Chalked it up as another mainstream release that is more afraid of presenting actual horror than scaring you. It has a couple of effective moments. Not enough to set any kind of tone or sustain suspense.
Like both M3GAN and Night Swim, Imaginary tries to get you invested in a family drama. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. Provided you are presenting an effective one with horror elements layered on top of it. This one is very paint by numbers. Jessica wants to connect to her stepdaughters. The eldest, Taylor (Taegan Burns), is making that as difficult as possible. The husband is away…you get it. It doesn’t run much deeper than that. In fact, some scenes in Imaginary feel like they’re paying off moments who saw their setup left on the cutting room floor. More than once a line of dialogue (or an event) felt like it followed a missing scene.
Even with these issues…Imaginary isn’t a total wash. A few genuinely strong ideas pop up from time to time. The concept of the third act is strong. It doesn’t make the juice worth the squeeze…but it shows that for all its faults, Imaginary was born out of a solid concept. The execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Scare Value
It takes Imaginary a long time to ger moving. Even when it does…it barely reaches second gear. Despite some decent ideas and committed performances…there isn’t enough here to engage with. Some story beats feel unearned to the point where you wonder if a scene is missing. Some humor would have helped.
2/5
Imaginary Link
In theaters now – Fandango
