Imaginary (2024): A bad name for a worse movie

Imaginary is a winding, not-so-horror movie with way too many details (or dead plotlines) and jump cuts to make it enjoyable.

TLDR; Summary

Stepmom with childhood amnesia moves her family back into this home where her school-aged stepdaughter adopts her imaginary friend, a stuffed bear named Chauncey.

The Whole Story with Spoilers

• Jessica is a step-mom to a teenage Taylor and school-ager, Alice. There’s a dad, who’s in a band?, but you don’t see him much. Jess and her family are moving into her childhood home. It’s clear Taylor is not happy to have a bonus mom.
• Immediately upon moving in, a voice calls to Alice, leading her to the basement where she finds a stuffed bear sitting in the dark. Now that Alice’s imaginary friend…a stuffed bear?…is around, we get all these almost-jump scares. Alice gets involved in a ritualistic scavenger hunt with Chauncey, complete with a handwritten list that she can’t show anyone. Alice and Taylor’s (mentally committed) mom makes a surprise appearance to attack Jessica. The dad leaves for his band’s tour, and we learn Jess’ dad is also committed to some kind of nursing home and not quite conscious.
• That Bitch Gloria enters. She’s Jessica’s old babysitter, whom Jessica doesn’t remember because Jessica remembers nothing of her childhood but moved back there anyway. Gloria is a straight shooter and ready to tell everyone creepy secrets: she becomes a scholar in imaginary friends because of Jessica, she even wrote books about it. I can’t decide if she’s the best or worst part of this movie.
• There are a lot of jump cuts in this movie and intertwining scenes. It’s a lot. Chauncey trying to hurt the neighborhood kid, Liam, who brought over a bunch of pills that turned out to be allergy pills. Alice trying to complete the ritual by slamming her hand on a rusty nail while Jessica is having a heart-to-heart with a lump in bed she thinks is Alice (surprise! it’s Chauncey). It’s Dr. Soto, the pediatric therapist, showing Jessica the session video of Alice with her imaginary friend while flashing back to Alice with the stuffed bear. In the video, the phrase “never ever” comes up, which prompts Jessica to go to the basement to grab her childhood drawing. Jessica concludes that she needs to destroy the bear, prompting Dr. Soto to ask, “What bear?” PLOT TWIST. There is no bear!
• The movie goes on. Alice completes the scavenger hunt ritual and opens a portal, disappearing. That Bitch Gloria pops up to tell Taylor she knows Alice is missing but that it’s about Jessica’s childhood? (Well, that escalated quickly.) There are more scene cuts here between Jessica figuring out who “CB” is by drawing artwork on the walls in the house and this bitch Gloria explaining her obsession with imaginary friends. Apparently, Chauncey has been waiting in the house for Jessica to come back.
• Taylor, Jessica and That Bitch Gloria perform the ritual so they can go after Alice in the imaginary world. For something hurt? Scissors to the hand. Damn. Gloria brings us through the whole thing with some empowering dialogue (LOL). The fire goes out, and they think it didn’t work until Jessica realizes she’s missing the hurt (????) and verbally lays into Taylor. Hurting her hand wasn’t enough? WTF. Disagree. But the door then opens so I guess that was the trick.
• Imaginary realm is pretty trippy and blurry with Alice in Wonderland-looking rooms. Peek into a doorway, see yourself as a toddler. They watch as her dad gets the life sucked out of him by the entity – that’s why he is the way he is. Same concept in Stephen King’s IT – Jess’ dad looked into the deadlights.
• Second plot twist – That Bitch Gloria is working with the entity, as she explains in a weirdly matter-of-fact speech. She’s trapped them in this creepy place, getting creepier by the minute as Alice’s imagination starts to shape the world. As Gloria’s monologue crescendos, the giant ass teddy bear pops out of a room to devour her.
• Jessica and Taylor are working on finding a way to Alice and get split up. Each door leads to another childhood memory for Jess. Taylor ends up finding the not-Alice creeping in a corner with white eyeballs and high-pitched “he’s coming for you” voice. This is probably the creepiest part – where a white, wrinkly Alice is fast-screaming “never ever” at Taylor. Jess finds her, they find a dog, then there’s a door leading to their old apartment. Foreboding music as they walk down the hall to find Alice in her room, dining amid a room of presents. Alice’s mom is there, too, as a robot-like parody. Jess uses her creativity to build a door in the room – imagination has power there. Montage as the two girls and Jess use all the blue paint to start building an imaginary door out of there. As they’re trying to leave, the robo-mom’s eyes turn into creepy buttons, then she morphs into that gigantic bear. Jessica stays behind to battle the bear as she sends the kids through the door. She eventually gets loose and runs to the nearest open portal door. Taylor and Alice happen to be on the other side of it and pull her to safety. Too easy?
• Of course, there’s a twist ending – third plot twist of the movie. There are 10 minutes left when you’re getting the too-happy ending of Jessica reading her new book to her dad in the nursing home with her family apologizing for everything. She’s imagining this! Back in Wonderland, her button-eyed family is trying to convince her to stay. Then, real Taylor is back to rescue Jess. Jess and Taylor go back through the same door from before (hello, deja vu), and they furiously paint the door shut. Jess almost gets sucked back into the portal as the spider breaks through. There’s a struggle, the spider’s deadlights come on and catch Jess and Taylor. Alice is the only one left to start the weird liquid on fire, which starts the whole house on fire. The three escape, and the fire department shows up real quick. The end?
• Soft focus as we see the three, wrapped in blankets, Jess on crutches, as they check into a hotel. Some lobby kid with a bear makes them think it’s Chauncey. The bear, finally revealed, isn’t Chauncey, but they leave anyway. Cut back to the kid with the bear, talking to his mom about his imaginary friend. Slowly panning to the bear, OPE!, it IS Chauncey bear! Now the end.

The Horror Hating

• TOO MANY THINGS HAPPEN. I had a hard time writing all this shit. You should have seen my first draft (twice as long).
• Why are these dark scenes so dark? It’s one thing in a movie theater, but I can’t see a damn thing on my gigantic computer monitor.
• There’s a scene where Dr. Soto shows Jessica a video of another kid’s session. How can the doctor show this therapy video of a MINOR?!?!?!?!
• The button-eyed family reminds me of Coraline.
• Taylor keeps referring to imaginary friends as a “bing bong,” which I get, but who the fuck actually calls them that? No one. You just want to say “bing bong.”
• The acting leaves something to be desired. Gloria is just blurting shit out, Taylor is super fucking dramatic, and I’m not sure Jess has many expressions.
• This movie is about imaginary friends, but the imaginary friend is a stuffed bear? A stuffed bear with a voice string? Since when do stuffies have voice boxes with a cord? Sure, we find out the stuffed bear is imaginary but my mind cannot reconcile the WHY of this.