My quick rating – 4.4/10. I probably should have left Imaginary right where it was, languishing on my watchlist, gathering digital dust. Instead, I pressed play, and Chauncey the murderous Build-A-Bear is now seared into my brain for all the wrong reasons.
Let’s start with that promising title: Imaginary. You’d think, “Hey, maybe they’ll get clever with psychological horror, blur the lines of reality, give us something fresh.” Nope. Turns out the only thing imaginary here is the script’s creativity. This is about as generic as your standard off-brand breakfast cereal: we get the haunted house with a conveniently tragic backstory, a kid with complex family baggage, and a stuffed bear that occasionally creaks its neck like it needs a chiropractor.
The plot waddles along slower than Chauncey’s little plush legs. It takes forever to get anywhere even remotely interesting. We spend half the movie watching Jessica (DeWanda Wise) fret over her stepdaughter Alice’s new imaginary BFF, while everyone else stands around delivering painfully explanatory dialogue. You know, in case you’re incapable of piecing together that a demonic teddy might be a bad sign.
When the scares finally arrive, they’re mostly loud noises designed to make you spill your popcorn. True dread? Actual horror? Not so much. The “big” twists broadcast themselves like they’re holding neon signs. If you couldn’t predict where this was headed by minute 25, congrats, you probably are Chauncey.
I’ll give the filmmakers a reluctant gold star for trying something visually fun with the Escher-style nightmare realm. Those impossible staircases and weird geometric corridors were legitimately cool for about 90 seconds. Unfortunately, the film’s tiny effects budget becomes glaringly obvious, like it was all spent on renting a fog machine and buying that one CGI model of twisting hallways off a discount asset site.
By the time the climax limps across the finish line, it’s clear nobody in the editing bay had the energy left to give us a memorable ending. It’s the cinematic equivalent of leaving a “To be continued…” sign on a story you never planned to revisit. The credits roll, and you’re left sitting there thinking, “Wait, that’s it? Chauncey doesn’t even get a final menacing wave goodbye?”
Look, there are worse ways to waste 100 minutes—like attending a motivational seminar hosted by your weird uncle, but Imaginary is still a soft 4.4/10 from me. If you’re brave enough to face predictable scares, flat exposition, and a bear that’s somehow both cute and aggressively underwhelming, by all means, hit play. Otherwise, let Chauncey hibernate at the bottom of your queue where he belongs.
Amazon is one of many streaming options to choose from if interested in watching.