Imaginary, as the name itself and the movie cover visually explain you get the idea, a girl who has an imaginary friend who most likely talks to her through a teddy bear. This could be a movie idea that can be scary for a child or kids bellow 15 but how scary can it be to an adult specially when this imaginary friend is just a teddy bear?
The intriguing or interesting part of this movie is how smart or how much this imaginary friend will fuck up everybody else around Alice, the girl who interacts with it; there has to be more to it when it comes to a horror movie about a possessed toy, for example Chuky it was never about horror or possessing the toy but the people that it continue to kill and the tricks it use to get this people fall for their trap, Imaginary has to have some more to it if not will fall with the rest of horror movies that haven't really been any scary so far Night Swim, Five Nights at Freddys, The Exorcist: Believer just to mention a few you will latter find they have a common factor.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26658104/
- Platform: Theater
- Release: March, 8, 2024
Producing & Marketing an Innocent Horror Villain
This horror film Imaginary is produced by Jason Blum through his production company Blumhouse Productions and Tower of Babble, with a budget of 13 million dollars, Jason has recently produce quite a few horror type movies in the last six month that were not too popular among viewers some of them to mention Night Swim, Five Nights at Freddy and The Exorcist: Bliever, I guess some of them were not even really horror movies and others develop on top of exhausted ideas that don't bring anything new to the table. From the trailer what I really find on point is the soundtrack and the echoing voices, giving that goosebumps vibes, music was composed by Bear McCreary, who has been in charge of the soundtrack for various television series such as The Walking Dead, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as the video game God Of War, and the movie The Lord of the Rings.
To promote the movie Imaginary, the production company came up with a clever marketing strategy, the first trailer was revealed in November 2023 alongside Five Nights at Freddy’s, showing that Blumhouse truly puts all its effort into horror movies about relatively innocent things. In Five Nights at Freddy’s, the animatronics of an abandoned pizzeria try to kill a security guard during his night shifts and now on Imaginary, a teddy bear is the villain, I get how this is a concept that he wants to explode and develop, might be scary for a child although for an adult not that much but what if what he really wants is make you remember nigh mates from your childhood? I would say a good amount of people if not 80% was scare of darkness when they were little and things like a Teddy Bear could look like something else in the dark.
Imaginary a Inocent Nightmare Created by Jeff Wadlow
The director of this innocent type of horror movie Imaginary is Jeff Wadlow he has written and directed movies of different genres such as horror, action, and comedy, and has over 22 years of experience in the movie industry although after looking at his IMDB profile could not find any horror movie that has been a hit, he does have a few movies that I personally like some of them Never Back Down, Kick Ass 2 but still none of them movies that I would watch more than once, basically cable movies. It feels that he has been testing all this genres trying to look for that one he can represent and exploit. Wadlow started had his directorial debut in 2005 with the movie Cry Wolf, latter on work with Danny DeVito on a short film comedy "Curmudgeons".
While looking for information about Wadlow every where something that keep coming up is that he has found "success on Hollywood" although when you look at the rating that some of the movies written or directed by Jeff Wadlow the performance is very low, this does not has to coorelate with how much income this movie have got but most of the time it is, my point is how good a movie need to be for a director to be consider succesful? I guess it still a hard job to at least produce something worth watching.
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The cast for Imaginary is full of known faces, most of them from TV series and a couple of horror movies, at least for the main characters, this is not a movie too complicated when it comes to the amount of characters you have to follow I believe that a horror movie should be as simple as possible, less distraction and more focus on the horror side of things.
The main character Alice by Pyper Braun, you most likely wont know here since she is so young although already have quite a few productions she have work, Braun has already made an impression with her first starring role in the Netflix comedy Country Comfort. With her infectious energy and natural talent, Braun is set to shine in her role in this haunting tale and from the trailer I can tell she can develop this character very well.
DeWanda Wise play the role of Jessica, she have now return to her childhood house, Jessica has a stepdaughter in this case its Alice, this this place Jessica has found her old teddy bear named by her Chauncey, she started to notice how Alice starts playing with it and become very close but certain games and conversations about it are not just right. DeWanda have work in a couple of production I have seen a remember her from like Jurassic World Dominion, Invasion, Fatherhood.
Some other well known and familiar faces on this movie are Tom Payne playing the characeter Max you might remember Tom from the well known tv series The Walking Dead. Veronica Falcon playing the character of Dr. Alana Soto, a therapist who had sessions with Alice trying to understand what is going on between her and this imaginary friend Chauncey, you might remember Veronica from the TV series Ozark. Betty Buckley playing the role of Gloria, who seem to be a crucial asset for the story as Glori tries to understand way far than doctors could, she brings the idea that Chauncey is actually an entity and this is something all cultures have but they name it differently but the question is Gloria a friend?
Only because of a few scenes that I like from the movie I will give Imaginary (2024) a try, the fact that Alice gets possessed or at least that is what it looks like from the trailer it could be interesting because then we can have an exorcist situation, the girl is gone, small door drawing on the wall and now its her and the teddy bear going after the rest of the people in the house at night that right there I think its scary enough, I also mention how her voice and the soundtrack of the trailer I find on point for scary scenes. Imaginary in my opinion its not going to be a big hit although if it gets a solid flat 7 I would call it a success, its very hard that I find horror movies I want to watch over and over across years for example most of the movies around The Conjuring saga, but I feel Imaginary might not be part of that select group of horror movies, the scary bear doesn't cut it for me.
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