Directed By Jeff Wadlow

Starring – DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Veronica Falcon

The Plot – A woman (Wise) returns to her childhood home to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is very real and unhappy that she abandoned him, now plaguing the house’s new inhabitants.

Rated PG-13 for some violent content, drug material and adult language.

Imaginary (2024) Official Trailer – DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Films pertaining to imaginary essences have been making a comeback in recent years, with “M3gan”, “The Invisible Man” and a shot of life to the “Child’s Play” franchise among noteworthy successes, and while “Imaginary” isn’t anywhere on the level of these superior films, there’s plenty of potential here to see how another writer and director could craft something endearing for future installments. For starters, the entity of Chauncey is exercised with unique capabilities in vocal manipulation that allows characters and outside audiences to hear him identically to that of the person he’s haunting, with the tones of a little girl here being all the creepier when asked to say these sinister sentences. Because we only ever hear him as the person he’s emulating, it makes it all the easier to interpret him as nothing more than an evil entity, in turn leaving him uniquely interesting for the ambiance of mystique that he maintains even throughout some exposition dumps with no shortage of convenience between them. Aside from this, I found the performance of Wise to easily stand at the forefront of a collective ensemble that constantly underperforms, with humanity, resiliency and especially intelligence serving as the matters that we seek with female badass protagonists in horror movies. Wise isn’t given the best material to work with in development or dialogue, but it emphasizes her impactful cause all the more because of the presence over the proceedings that she’s still able to muster, despite so many aspects continuously working against her, and with the added benefit of minority representation for an ethnicity that is finally starting to appreciate them as anything but an added body count, I found her turn here to make the most inside of such a limited opportunity. Lastly, despite roughly 80% of this movie falling by the wayside of problematic writing and under-executed frights, I found the climax during the third act to nearly redeem it by finally tapping into the imagination of the gimmick that was only hinted at throughout the entirety of the film. Without spoiling anything, I can say that this plot and journey expand far beyond that of what’s initially presented to us in trailers and set-up, feeling like the realized moments where the plot marries the ambition to craft something uniquely unsettling to what and where the characters are exploring. Not everything is perfect about it, obviously, as the resolution and ending itself drowns on through three different points where the film could easily finish out, only to continue chugging along, but I think as much as it answers about these characters and their distinct predicament, it fleshes out so many more about the possible future of this franchise, and considering the visuals and style of the film finally feel come together to create something endearing to the conflict, it leaves me thinking what might’ve been if “Imaginary” were in more capably creative hands.

NEGATIVES

Considering Wadlow is the same visionary who helmed awful films such as “Truth or Dare”, “Fantasy Island” and “Cry Wolf”, I had little confidence in the film’s capabilities to produce something at least slightly chilling, and despite the film’s aforementioned final thirty minutes, this is another failure of his in nearly every capacity of filmmaking, beginning with the cliche bingo that he plays with the film’s script. Whether in an old lady neighbor with insight into everything about this mysterious entity, underwritten and unlikeable characters who we’re asked to endure and invest upon, or a husband disappearing at the beginning of the film, to never be heard from again, it’s clear that Wadlow lacks any semblance of originality or nuances for what works particularly within the genre, finding himself tonally in the middle of a film that is not nearly scary enough to embrace its horror roots, nor campy enough to produce something so bad it’s at least entertaining. This all feels like familiar territory that has been frequently exploited by better films, and considering it’s constantly limited by a PG-13 rating, it lacks the grit to ever attempt any kind of flashly violent impact for Chauncey that could articulate the devastating force that he’s constantly hinted to be. Also, as previously mentioned, the dialogue completely obliterates subtleties in ways that not only spoon-feeds audiences everything they need to know, rendering their investment to the proceedings unnecessary, but also saturating these human characters towards feeling anything but human, especially within the confines of the two child characters, who are so over the top and melodramatic that it feels like they belong in an after school special. This leads to unforgivable performances, even from the youthful Veronica Falcon, that conjured no shortage of unintentional laughs to the ways they deliver such ridiculously meandering dialogue, offering us nobody outside of Wise’s protagonist with any kind of redeeming qualities or even accidental depth to their respective outlines, which only further underscores the lack of impact from the attempted frights. In that respect, “Imaginary” is quite literally toothless, biding its time between predictably bland jump scares and coldly uncooked atmosphere that occasionally made me even forget that I was watching a horror film, especially with only one body and three spare instances throughout 99 minutes of screen time. This is particularly where the movie gets really ugly because the pacing is obviously a mess with such a prolonged test of patience on the audience seeking any semblance of what they paid good money for, but especially in the development of various subplots that hint at a deeper cut of the film, without actually pursuing them. There are many examples that I could certainly point towards, but one involving a spider within Wise’s subconscious that is casually hinted at throughout her character’s novels and illustrations, but not fully realized until the film’s climax. Considering this is a creature tied so heavily to her livelihood, I expected it to render a deeper meaning to what is eventually pieced together, but the film is frequently hurling subplots at the audience in ways that made something fall inevitably irrelevant, serving as examples to a greater film off in the distance that we unfortunately never received. Finally, even the production values of the film leave more to be desired, especially in the movie’s presentation, which once more feels so dark that it obscures vital imagery. I say “Once more” because it seems to be a growing trend among contemporary horror films where they add a post-production element of touch-up to the finished product, all in order to unnaturally elicit atmosphere where the direction doesn’t feel capable, but it ultimately leads to compromising difficulty towards the detection of nighttime or poorly lit sequences, crafting an overwhelming conflict of its own for the audience to regretfully overcome.

OVERALL
“Imaginary” lacks the primary titular ingredient to make the most of its psychologically subversive idea, leading to another monumental disappointment from Wadlow, who has already crafted some of the genre’s worst of the century. Despite a last second noteworthy effort inside of a mind-bending climax, the film is ultimately and unfortunately weighed down by a lack of frights, one-dimensional characterization, and a convoluted screenplay with not enough time to capably pursue its many tiers, leaving it searching for a fully realized form that it can only hear, and not see.

My Grade: 4/10 or D-