MY CALL: If you need a good warm-up movie before your quality evening feature, this is a decent enough popcorn flick that some of the kids can watch before you put them to bed for Terrifier 3 (2024). Nothing special; but decently produced and easily good enough. MORE MOVIES LIKE Imaginary: Maybe something like Hide and Seek (2005) or Z (2019).
A struggling stepmom moving her new family into her childhood home, Jessica (DeWanda Wise) finds much nostalgia and reminders of things long forgotten in her father’s old home videos and kiddish drawings on her old bedroom walls. Her husband Max (Tom Payne; The Walking Dead) and her younger stepdaughter Alice (Pyper Braun) are comforts. Whereas the older stepdaughter Taylor (Taegen Burns) is a teen ball of resistance.
Not a day in the house and young Alice is “called” to a small secret door in the basement where she finds an old Teddy Bear named Chauncy. She talks to Chauncy and finds good company with her new “friend.” At first, it seems sweet. But we quickly learn that Chauncy is quite haunted and ambulatory.
Keeping the audience even more on our toes is a creepy old lady neighbor, the mentally ill biological mother of the girls, some boogeyman imagery, and the provocative things Chauncy apparently says to Alice. Eventually, Chauncy suggests some destructive behavior, begins making threats, and displays some really cool monstrous imagery.
Perhaps following Insidious’ lead, we end up in an “other side” something like The Further. The final act does suffer from some painful over-exposition as a key character explains away things the scenes couldn’t so easily explain, and it reaches over-the-top fanaticism. But then it thankfully shifts to dark and feisty in their efforts to escape this evil Wonderland of imagination and what ends up looking like a comically discount brand Bughuul (Sinister).
Director Jeff Wadlow (Fantasy Island, Truth or Dare) has composed a rather effective PG-13 horror film—his best yet in my opinion. The family tensions felt palpably credible, and the atmosphere was (at times) strong. Moreover, the writing, acting, and production value felt above my typical expectations of sub-R horror, or even unfettered R-horror. This really was well composed. No glowing recommendations here. But this was entertaining.