Imaginary Review

I'm starting to get suspicious of movies we don't get any marketing for. Imaginary, say it with me now, got absolutely no trailers or posters before it came to theaters. When I saw it on the coming soon whiteboard at work I thought someone had misremembered the title of IF, the John Krasinski movie that is also about imaginary friends, but nope. This is a horror movie from Blumhouse. (IF comes out in May.) All I knew going in is that it has been getting trashed by reviews. But the premise seems interesting, maybe I'll like it despite what other say?

What's The Movie About?

Jessica is a children's book author who moves her new family into her childhood home. When her stepdaughter makes an imaginary friend, the family deals with some spooky shenanigans while trying to navigate past trauma and moving forward together.

What I Like.

I really like Jessica and the little girl Alice. I think making the main character of a movie about imaginary friends a children's book author is genius. And Alice is very cute and never got cloying. He's not in it much, but the dad in the movie was also pretty nice and sensible, which was a good change of pace. When eventually we get to see some creature designs, I thought they looked pretty freaky and the effects were good. There's a land of imagination that I also liked the look of. The monster also had a power where it could project the collective imaginations of all children through its eyes, and adult brains can't handle the strain of looking into them. That's really fucking cool idea. It's like unrestrained children's imagination is a Lovecraftian entity. The plot as a whole I rather enjoyed. There is themes of parenthood and protecting the innocent even if that means sacrificing yourself, and the moments when they touch on darker topics like self-mutilation are pretty unsettling. I also really like that Jess is the kids' stepmother and she actually loves them and is willing to put her life on the line for them, even though they don't always appreciate her efforts. I've heard this movie described as cliched, and while that is true, I also feel like they do some interesting twists on those cliches and I enjoyed it. There also quite a few plot twists that did take me a minute to fully appreciate, but I came around on them. The few moments of humor I thought were pretty good too. I liked the worldbuilding and how the imaginary friend operates, but admittedly that may be because it reminded me of two TTRPGs I think are cool. (Monsters and Other Childish Things and Little Fears, if you are interested in checking them out.)

What I Didn't Like.

I only have two substantive issues with the movie. One, while I liked the designs of the monster and the imaginary world, it felt constrained. Like if I told you a form the monster takes is of a spider-humanoid, the first thing you think of is probably exactly what it looks like. There's nothing too crazy in terms of the supernatural aspect of the movie, brain-melting imagination projection aside. (And that being said they don't really show any of the brain-melting stuff. It's just the monster projecting swirly lights from its eyes.) Two, I really fucking hate Taylor. She is the elder step-daughter and basically the secondary main character, but she a rude bitch to Jess the entire movie, causes a bunch of problems, and even when eventually getting on the same page as everyone else she's still sarcastic and barely helpful. At least the douchebag boy next door she flirts with ended up being so pathetic it was funny.

Final Summation.

I did like Imaginary despite the poor reviews! Maybe it's just something that appeals to me personally (I like kids and monsters together for some reason), but I was ruminating on why I liked it when no one else seemed to. I have two theories. 

One, while I think Imaginary is a good movie, I don't think it's a good horror movie. It's not that scary. Shocking, I know, the movie with a stuffed teddy bear as the main antagonist is not the horror masterpiece we were all expecting. It wasn't as scare-less as Night Swim, but it's definitely not gonna be keeping me up at night. I can totally understand why someone walking into a Blumhouse would be annoyed that they aren't getting nightmares from it.

Two, I think maybe people misinterpreted what the movie was trying to be. Imaginary is not a serious movie. It does touch on some darker subject matter, but it still airs a bit on the fairytale storytelling method. The main villain, besides angry imaginary friends, is not trusting the adult. It isn't the most complex moral situation in the world but I  don't think it was trying to be. I also think some of the goofier parts were intentional. The only death in the movie made me laugh, but it could have used one more comedy beat to make it completely clear I was supposed to be laughing. Honestly, maybe that's the best direction for a  PG-13 horror movie to go. If you're already limiting how dark you can be by not allowing certain imagery, it might be best to just shoot for a lighter tone all together. I didn't watch it, but that what it seems like the Five Nights At Freddy's movie did. (Interestingly, the other movie title dropped on the poster is M3GAN, and the only thing I know about that movie is that the robot danced in a silly way. Maybe the filmmakers were trying tell everyone what kind of movie they were making and no one paid attention.)

In conclusion, give Imaginary a chance. Maybe you won't set your world on fire, but I had a good time.