Blumhouse’s Imaginary Will Have You Giving Your Teddy Side-Eye

Every child has an imaginary friend.  Someone you trust and confide in when no one else seems to understand.  For some, it is a prized possession in the form of a doll or stuffed animal and like all children we grow up.  With that growth comes going away to college and moving away from those items that gave us comfort.  But, what do you think happens when we come back home only to discover that favorite imaginary friend is none too thrilled that we left them behind?

Produced by Blumhouse Productions, Imaginary is one of the few horror/thriller films where the plot is totally driven by the women characters making it right on time with Women’s International Day and Women’s Month 2024. “I was raised by strong women. My mother, Emily Couric, was a Virginia State Senator and the head of the Democratic party. My aunt, former ‘Today’ show co-host and CBS news anchor Katie Couric, is an accomplished journalist. I love writing characters that evoke the women who helped shape me, ” stated Director Jeff Wadlow.

Dewanda Wise inhabits the epitome of strong woman, as we have seen her in role after role show up and show out.  As Jessica,  we meet her experiencing a harrowing nightmare, while learning a shocking connection between her young stepdaughter’s new imaginary friend and own troubled childhood.  This film gives a whole new meaning to Daddy’s little girl and will have you looking at those stuffed teddy bears with an over the shoulder side-eye.

Wise isn’t the only one exuding strength and tenacity.  Broadway legend Betty Buckley, who takes on the role of Gloria, started her career in horror with Carrie, a film that arguably launched the modern horror genre, as well as turn in M. Night Shylamalan’s “The Happening” and “Split.”  “Gloria felt such wonder through the eyes of that child, it set her on a quest,” says Buckley. “It gave Gloria a career. She thought, oh, there’s something more than this, and through her own desire to understand and connect with that other dimension, Gloria began to research spirituality, magic, and occult worlds. She realizes there’s this occult tradition of young people’s relationships to imaginary friends and has made herself an authority about that because of the influence of this significant time in her life as young Jessica’s babysitter. But…nobody has taken Gloria or her work seriously, so she’s eager to prove that it’s real.  For Gloria, it’s a last chance at a kind of redemption.

Last and certainly not least, Taegen Burns (Taylor) give bratty teenager a whole new vibe.  Her performance is so rooted you wonder how Jessica maintains the restraint not to snatch a knot in that behind for being so fresh and disrespectful. However, it is Pyper Braun as Alice steals the show with the same range that a young Linda Blair displayed in “The Exorcist.”  Baby, between her and Chauncey, audiences will be have a grand old time with Imaginary, which is delivered with insane photographical tricks making this film unusual fun, with a few jump moments here and there.