It’s a good time to be a horror fan, with new and creative ideas being regularly introduced through the genre, and the best part is we don’t even have to wait until Halloween to get great ones. We’ve already seen a couple of spooky options hit the 2024 movie schedule, and up next we have Imaginary (not to be confused with John Krasinski’s IF — another movie about imaginary friends) from Blumhouse Productions. Critics have seen Imaginary, and most of them say they were left wanting when it came to the scares.
Jeff Wadlow helms this story of Jessica (DeWanda Wise) moving back into her childhood home to find that her imaginary friend was real after all and is connected to the teddy bear with which her youngest stepdaughter (Pyper Braun) has become enamored. In CinemaBlend’s review of Imaginary, Sarah El-Mahmoud says the movie follows titles like M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s in being a bit more beginner horror. Overall it’s a bit clunky, she writes, in part because Chauncey is too darn cute to be that scary. El-Mahmoud rates the film 2.5 stars out of 5, saying:
Tried-and-true fans of the genre are not going to bat an eye at this rather elementary scare fest. If you’re willing to surrender yourself to the twisty-turny (and rather conventional) storyline of Jeff Wadlow’s PG-13 vision, there’s some fun to be had in Imaginary – but you’re not going to get any badges of honor for getting through this one without being plagued by nightmares. The movie is about an evil teddy bear, and that’s rather mild when you pit him against other famous toys from classic scary movies.
Brianna Zigler of Paste Magazine rates it a 2 out of 10, calling it an “imaginary horror movie.” Zigler writes that everything in Imaginary appears to be pulled from an algorithm, and even the dialogue sounds like it was written by bad A.I. The critic continues:
Imaginary isn’t ‘so bad it’s good’ because it feels like an insult to intelligence and good sense, as if assuming we will be too stupid to pick up on its amalgam of unoriginality and thus it will sate our simple monkey minds. Still, I’d like to give audiences a little more credit, as it is helpful to remember that the studios, not audiences, have devolved any standards in film habits. But Imaginary is also far too boring to win over the general crowds, even if it does manage to garner points for hitting a bunch of horror sweet spots through the most donkey-brained means imaginable. The crass blatancy in its exploitation of tired formulae won’t manage to sneak past even the most eager and undiscerning horror fan.
Wilson Chapman of IndieWire says that for a movie titled Imaginary, it’s striking how much creativity is lacking. This critic also finds attempts to mimic M3GAN with humor and self-awareness, but this one unfortunately will likely be quickly forgotten. Chapman grades it a C, writing:
For much of the running time, it struggles to find the balance and clarity in writing needed to make the style work, and the film instead mostly meanders through a solid hour of bloodless buildup spent investing in its largely braindead characters. The dynamics between Jessica and her stepdaughters are tired and exhausting clichés, and some backstory involving the girls’ mentally ill biological mother aside, there’s no attempt to flesh it out beyond the barest of bones.
Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter says the movie starts out promising enough and features a dedicated effort from DeWanda Wise, but it doesn’t deliver enough creepiness to make you look twice at your child’s teddy bears. Scheck says:
Imaginary, which starts out as a relatively low-key suspenser with intriguing psychological depth, eventually succumbs to the inanities plaguing so many recent horror efforts (like the killer pool in the same company’s Night Swim). It’s a shame because Wise delivers a very strong performance as the beleaguered heroine and has fine support from the younger players, with Braun haunting as the little girl desperate for a friend, even one in the form of a not particularly cuddly teddy bear. She would have been better off with Ted.
For Matt Goldberg of The Wrap, however, Imaginary was serviceable, thanks to the director knowing how to construct a good scare and the thoughtful theme explored in Jessica and Alice’s parental trauma. Goldberg warns audiences not to dismiss the movie too quickly, writing:
Your mileage may vary on how much credit you want to give Imaginary for its imagination. Some may see it as a been-there, done-that ride that recalls better pictures, but such a view dismisses the kind of bread-and-butter delights a film like Imaginary provides, and a B-movie appreciation we readily allow for genres other than horror. Look beyond the plethora of allusions, and you’ll see a film that’s happily engaging with the genre while still maintaining a solid core of real dread so that it’s not all empty calories. I can imagine far worse for a PG-13 horror film.
Overall it seems the critics aren’t too excited about what Imaginary delivers, citing a rote plot and a lack of anything truly scary. However, if this still sounds like a movie you might enjoy, you should definitely check it out for yourself, and you can do so starting on Friday, March 8. Whether or not this is your kind of fright-fest, be sure to check out what other upcoming horror movies are headed our way soon.