‘Imaginary’ Review

Stars: DeWanda Wise, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Betty Buckley, Tom Payne, Veronica Falcon | Written by Jeff Wadlow, Greg Erb, Jason Oremland | Directed by Jeff Wadlow

Produced by BlumHouse and directed by Jeff Wadlow (Fantasy Island), Imaginary is a solidly entertaining Friday night horror flick that does a decent job with its premise. It may not deliver any really big scares (at least not if you’re not frightened of bears or spiders), but it’s consistently creepy and tense and Wadlow pulls off a couple of neat twists.

DeWanda Wise plays Jessica, a children’s book author and illustrator who has recently married musician Max (Tom Payne) and become stepmother to his two daughters, stroppy teenager Taylor (Taegen Burns) and six year-old Alice (Pyper Braun). When the family move into Jessica’s old family home, Alice finds an old teddy bear in the basement and quickly turns him into her imaginary friend, who she names Chauncey.

However, Chauncey doesn’t always have Alice’s best interests at heart, and when the games he makes her play become dangerous, Jessica becomes increasingly concerned. Eventually, Alice’s behaviour triggers repressed memories for Jessica and she realises, too late, that Chauncey may be related to her own childhood imaginary friend, and that they are all in great danger.

Chauncey himself is a somewhat unassuming character, looking very much like an ordinary teddy bear and therefore not very threatening or creepy at all. To that end, Wadlow pulls off a neat trick, making Chauncey increasingly creepy by suggesting that Alice may be experiencing some degree of delusion, or possession, although nobody actually suggests possession.

Accordingly, Imaginary’s creepiest scene involves Alice seeing a child psychologist (Veronica Falcon), a nicely staged sequence that delivers two effective twists in one go. It’s also fair to say that Wadlow pulls off a satisfying third act and climax, paying off each story element in a way that is consistent with the story’s internal logic.

Throughout the film, Wadlow maintains a suitably creepy atmosphere, building tension gradually through tiny escalations. There are no, “Why don’t they just LEAVE?” moments, for example, a common issue in studio produced horror movies.

The performances are excellent. Wise (who also exec produced) makes a likeable lead, while Braun is effective as Alice and Burns is superb as Taylor, essentially getting the film’s second most important character arc, going from open hostility towards Jessica to something more supportive. There’s also strong support from Betty Buckley as Jessica’s former babysitter, who has vital information about her childhood. In fairness, her usefulness to the plot could have stopped there, but the script includes her in the final act craziness, to enjoyable effect.

If there’s a problem with Imaginary, it’s only that it never really tops its opening nightmare sequence for scares (which, in fairness, does involve being attacked by a giant spider), but that’s a minor complaint overall. In short, this is an engaging, well-acted and smartly conceived Friday night horror with a fair degree of franchise potential.

*** 3/5

Imaginary is in cinemas now.