Mikes Film Talk

After the 2024 offering of IF, I was quite excited for Imaginary, another 2024 offering. What a let down. The “evil twin” of IF does not stand up to scrutiny and fell flat on the “horror” side of this imaginary friend tale.

The Story

Jessica, a cartoonist, moves back to the family home. She is joined there by her husband and his two girls from a previous marriage. His daughters are yet to get over that initial resistance to a stepmum and the small family are struggling internally.

Meanwhile, the youngest girl; Alice, makes a new friend.

Main Cast

DeWanda Wise is Jessica, cartoonist and new step mother.

Taegen Burns is Taylor, the overly aggressive oldest daughter.

Pyper Braun is the youngest step child. She is, the ethereal “minnie me” to Jessica. Over imaginative and active.

Tom Payne is Max. Husband to Jessica and father to the two girls.

The Best Cameo Award Goes to

Betty Buckley is Gloria. Sorry for the metaphorical drumroll. I have been a fan since Carrie, the 1976 original.

Behind the scenes

Director and co-writer Jeff Wadlow tries too hard right out of the gate. * Don’t get me wrong here. I am a Wadlow fan. While Kick Ass 2, to me, was a let down, I loved True Memoirs of an International Assassin. Oddly enough, IMDb give KA2 a 6.5 but TMIA only 5.9. Go figure.*

The co-writers on Imaginary: Greg Erb and Jason Oremland seem to contribute to the “too many cooks” syndrome. Something I have alluded to in other reviews. The threesome have shoved too much into the film. Each element working against the other.

It results in a mishmash of themes that never really reach fruition or tangible cohesion.

Allusions to Coraline?

Imaginary could be making some allusions to the far superior imaginary world of Coraline. The latter film, for all its amusing premises, was quite scary in all the right places. It also benefited from a total lack of signposting. Wadlow’s effort here sees each “plot twist” showing up a mile away.

There was one pretty satisfying jump scare though. I will not mention where it turns up. You will find it yourself and it is a goosebump inducing moment.

The Verdict

Imaginary works too hard. It loses a quite a bit and, to be fair, the casting leaves a lot to be desired as well. There is no real chemistry between any of the actors. Each appear to be concentrating on their own role and not with interacting believably with their onscreen counterparts.

This is a, at a push, 2.5 stars out of 5. The tale feels like it has all been done before, but better. Come on Blumhouse. Sort yourself out. Imaginary is streaming on Starz.

The trailer