Imaginary: Unimaginative Imaginary Friends Make for Dull Company

By Thom Ernst

Rating: C

The unacknowledged thing about Imaginary (as far as I know) is how much the just-released horror movie owes to the maligned Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey—part of a trend of public-domain characters ripped from the pages of beloved children's books. 

In Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey, a feral Pooh and his equally savage sidekick, Piglet, go on a murderous spree after their friend Christopher Robin abandons them in the Hundred Acre Wood. The wondrous fantasy world Robin has created for his imaginary friends has deteriorated into the dark gloom of a dead forest, overgrown by weeds and rotting trees.

Without Christopher Robin's guidance, Winnie, once a thriving, sweet, bumbling, honey-loving bear, is now broken and untamed. He's not lost his taste for honey but now enjoys it with a splash of blood.

Alice (Pyper Braun) and friend in Imaginary

Other children's characters reimagined more monstrously include Greta and Hansel (2020) and The Legend of Jack n' Jill (2021)). Standing in the wings await Pinocchio, Mickey Mouse, and Willy Wonka, who are waiting for their turn to be transformed from innocuous to vicious. Despite the original's pathetic Rotten Tomatoes rating, a Blood & Honey sequel is due for limited release imminently.  

Would the producers of Imaginary welcome such comparisons? Not likely. The production level is higher, the performances are more refined, and the exploitation is less vivid. There are no famous literary characters in Imaginary, but there is an imaginary world in which an imaginary friend comes in the shape of an imaginary teddy bear.

Of course, none of it is remotely imaginative. Dream-like worlds with long, endless hallways, cotton ball clouds (intentional, I assume, given the child-vision premise), and animatronic arms reaching out from open doors to attack its victims, is as original as a carnival house of horrors.

This is the story of Jessica (

), a young children's story author attempting to bond with her stepdaughters, defiant 15-year-old Taylor (Taegen Burns) and 10-year-old Alice (Pyper Braun). Taylor is still devoted to her mother, who’s now institutionalized after severely harming Alice.

Jessica's husband, Max (Tom Payne) is a hipster, complete with tattoos and a successful band, and whose sole purpose in the film is to display congenial acceptance of his wife's efforts to bond with his children and to display a loving parental watch over his daughters. Payne might be fine, but Max is useless.

The incredibly understanding Max convinces Jessica to return to her family home, where she still harbours fond memories. Her father (Samuel Salary) is now in assisted living and, because of some unknown terror, is half the man he used to be.

The situation concerns the house and Jessica's unfriendly, invisible friend who she abandoned. Now the invisible friend wants revenge. Who knew imaginary friends could be so sensitive and needy. With imaginary friends like these, who needs an imagination? 

Imaginary friends have been terrifying parents and caregivers since Reagan met Captain Howdy in The Exorcist (1974) and again in The Shining (1980) when little Danny Torrance meets Tony. And possessed children's toys, M3GAN (2022), Child's Play (1988) and Annabelle (2014). Chauncy is no match for any of them.

During a game of hide and seek, Alice goes alone into a dark, barely lit basement despite being terrified. Inexplicably, she moves several boxes and discovers a hidden door. There, she finds Chauncy, a brown teddy bear who adopts Alice as his new friend.

But Alice's new friend is—as the poster claims—no friend.

Director Jeff Wadlow puts up a single card announcing Imaginary as "a film by Jeff Wadlow." "A film by" is an annoying prestige conceit rarely earned by filmmakers who are more interested in cinema as consumerism than art. Granted, Wadlow, aside from directing, is also a producer and co-writer. So, there might be some rationale for giving himself auteur recognition, if only Imaginary were a better movie.

Imaginary, Blumhouse's latest attempt to corner the market in high-concept/low-effort horror is, at best, an entry-level horror for those still traumatized by episodes of Goosebumps. This is not surprising, given that Wadlow also directed the adolescent horror series Are You Afraid of the Dark. It's not that Imaginary doesn't have one or two good moments. It’s just that it only has one or two good moments.  

As a title, Imaginary feels awkwardly misplaced, an adjective abandoned by the rules of grammar that would lend context and meaning. It's not the wrong word, but it's a word that would fit more comfortably in a child's fable starring, perhaps, a pre-Oscar slap Will Smith as a genie or some other loveable magical miscreant.  

Imaginary is far too long, at one hour, 44 minutes. The build-up has a few exciting moments. But the climax, intended as the film's centerpiece, is a dull repetition of hallways, locked doors, and unimpressive jump scares.

Anyone who has toured a makeshift haunted house at a charitable event has experienced worse scares.

Imaginary is directed by Jeff Wadlow, and stars DeWanda Wise, Taegan Burns, Samuel Salary, Tom Payne and Pyper Braun. In theatres now.