Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
No Result
View All Result
Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
Home Movie

Blumhouse Horror Flick Fails to Inspire

rmtsa by rmtsa
March 8, 2024
in Movie
0
Blumhouse Horror Flick Fails to Inspire
74
SHARES
1.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


You might also like

‘Back to the Future’ Guitar Goes Missing

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Bonus Puzzle Answer Today for June 3, 2025

How to Watch ‘Sinners’ Online Without HBO Max Online

There’s a lot to unpack in the new horror film from Blumhouse, which seems designed to provide fodder for family therapy sessions throughout the country.

The recently married Jessica (DeWanda Wise, Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It) is dealing with a father (Samuel Salary) who has withdrawn into a near-comatose state and resides in an assisted living facility after a traumatic event many years earlier. Her rock musician husband Max (Tom Payne, Prodigal Son) has an ex-wife who lapsed into addiction and insanity and has been institutionalized after harming one of her children. His teenage daughter Taylor (Taegen Burns) resents her new stepmother and acts out in typical adolescent fashion, and his little girl Alice (Pyper Braun), who bears the scars of her mother’s attack, takes solace in her new best friend Chauncey, a ratty teddy bear whom she found in a closet. In this troubled extended clan, it’s the bear who seems the most well-adjusted, despite the fact that he has the disturbing habit of popping up unexpectedly in odd places.

Imaginary

The Bottom Line

Not scary enough to make you look twice at your kid’s teddy bear.

Release date: Friday, March 8Cast: DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Matthew Sato, Veronica Falcon, Betty BuckleyDirector: Jeff WadlowScreenwriters: Jeff Wadlow, Greg Erb, Jason Oremland
Rated PG-13,
1 hour 44 minutes

When Max has to leave the family to go on tour with his band, he decides that the best thing would be for Jessica and the kids to move back into her childhood home. It’s supposedly the source of her happiest childhood memories, although it’s clear that Jessica, who writes a children’s book series called “Molly Millipede” and suffers from recurring nightmares featuring giant spiders, might have wanted a safer retreat.

The new house is where Alice finds the bear, who at first seems harmless enough. Everyone keeps referring to it as Alice’s “imaginary friend,” much like the one that Jessica herself had in the same house many years earlier. Alice seems happily content with Chauncey, sitting down for a tea party with him and playing hide and seek. But their close relationship grows increasingly disturbing, especially when he makes her engage in a scavenger hunt that turns dangerous.

Up to this point, Imaginary feels pretty standard for a low-budget horror effort, providing a moderate level of spookiness and a few cheap jump scares to remind teenagers why they bought their tickets. But the film directed by horror veteran Jeff Wadlow (Truth or Dare, Fantasy Island) and co-written by him and Greg Erb and Jason Oremland starts to go off the rails around the time that a concerned Jessica brings in a child therapist (Veronica Falcon) to talk to Alice and Chauncey. After her session with the little girl, the clearly rattled shrink inquires, “Has she taken up any new hobbies lately? Ventriloquism?” Cue the audience guffaws, which return soon afterward when Jessica announces, “I gotta destroy that bear!” Which is very much not a line destined to join the horror pantheon of “I see dead people” and “They’re here!”

But wait, it gets better, although for the sake of avoiding spoilers too many more plot details won’t be revealed. Suffice it to say that Alice soon goes missing, that her imaginary friend is not so imaginary, and that everyone winds up in an alternate dimension resembling an M.C. Escher drawing and featuring various monsters including a very large guy in a bear suit.

And then there’s the supporting character of Gloria, a creepy old woman who wanders around the neighborhood at all hours and seems desperate for conversation. It turns out that she’s Jessica’s former babysitter and has inside knowledge of her past nightmarish experiences. She’s also an author who specializes in the subject of imaginary friends, which comes in very handy when the group decides to offer a benediction to summon a spirit from another realm. Nostalgia buffs will enjoy the fact that Gloria is played by Betty Buckley, who established her horror bona fides so many years ago in the original Carrie (and more recently in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split). The veteran actress plays the role to the hilt, clearly relishing the opportunity to enjoy the sort of late-career renaissance in horror films as such Hollywood legends as Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland.

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.

Full credits

Production: Lionsgate, Blumhouse Productions, Tower of Babble EntertainmentDistributor: LionsgateCast: DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Matthew Sato, Veronica Falcon, Betty BuckleyDirector: Jeff WadlowScreenwriters: Jeff Wadlow, Greg Erb, Jason OremlandProducers: Jeff Wadlow, Jason BlumExecutive producers: Ryan Turek, DeWanda WiseDirector of photography: James McMillanProduction designer: Meghan C. RogersEditor: Sean AlbertsonCostume designer: Euylyn C. HufkoeComposer: Sparks & ShadowCasting: Terri Taylor, Sarah Domeier Lindo
Rated PG-13,
1 hour 44 minutes

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day


Subscribe

Sign Up



Source link

Tags: BlumhouseFailsFlickHORRORinspire
Share30Tweet19
rmtsa

rmtsa

Recommended For You

‘Back to the Future’ Guitar Goes Missing

by rmtsa
June 4, 2025
0
‘Back to the Future’ Guitar Goes Missing

What ever happened to the Cherry Red Gibson ES-345 guitar used by Michael J. Fox in the 1985 film classic Back to the Future? Apparently the instrument has...

Read more

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Bonus Puzzle Answer Today for June 3, 2025

by rmtsa
June 4, 2025
0
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Bonus Puzzle Answer Today for June 3, 2025

Here you’ll find the Celebrity Wheel of Fortune bonus puzzle answer today for Tuesday, June 3, 2025. In what is the penultimate episode of Season 5, this is...

Read more

How to Watch ‘Sinners’ Online Without HBO Max Online

by rmtsa
June 3, 2025
0
How to Watch ‘Sinners’ Online Without HBO Max Online

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission. Taking in more than $350...

Read more

Hey reddit, I’m Kevin Smith. I got the rights back to Dogma and I’m putting it out in theaters for a limited time for its 25th Anniversary starting Thursday June 5th. Ask me anything!

by rmtsa
June 3, 2025
0
Hey reddit, I’m Kevin Smith. I got the rights back to Dogma and I’m putting it out in theaters for a limited time for its 25th Anniversary starting Thursday June 5th. Ask me anything!

Hey reddit, I'm Kevin Smith. I got the rights back to Dogma and I'm putting it out in theaters for a limited time for its 25th Anniversary starting...

Read more

KILLER OF KILLERS Features a Savage Fight Scene — GeekTyrant

by rmtsa
June 3, 2025
0
KILLER OF KILLERS Features a Savage Fight Scene — GeekTyrant

Hulu has shared an exciting clip from director Dan Trachtenberg’s animated Predator anthology Predator: Killer of Killers, and it features a savage fight scenes from the film from...

Read more
Next Post
RHOM’s Alexia Nepola Talks Todd Nepola’s Finances Amid Rumors

RHOM’s Alexia Nepola Talks Todd Nepola’s Finances Amid Rumors

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Browse by Category

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized

CATEGORIES

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
No Result
View All Result

Recent News

  • Diddy Fan Forced Out Of Courtroom After Profanity-Laced Rant
  • ‘Back to the Future’ Guitar Goes Missing
  • Is It Renewed or Cancelled?

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In