‘Imaginary’ – Overstuffed teddy terror

Imaginary opens with the exact sequence one wants from a horror film focused on a vengeful spirit disguised as a teddy bear. Jessica, played by DeWanda Wise, has fled all manner of monsters throughout the halls of her childhood home. When all seems lost, she awakes from her nightmare, next to her loving husband in a house with two stepdaughters she adores.

Jessica’s life is not all that bad. She’s a survivor of a messed up childhood and a successful children’s author, whose books bare a striking resemblance to her nightmares. Something happened to Jessica in her younger years that haunts her to this day, but at least she’s making something out of it. After all, what good is childhood trauma if you can’t make a profit off it.

Naturally, trauma in a horror film needs resolution. Jessica and her family uproot themselves to live in her house of origin, the place where the nightmare began. Her teenage stepdaughter lets the world know how displeased she is with this, but the younger of the two girls Alice, finds Chauncy, a teddy bear friend that only she can see and hear.

It’s at this point that Imaginary dispenses an onslaught of deceptive jump scares, edging the audience along only to deliver nothing. It’s quite anticlimactic. The movie works best when it’s showing the friendship between Alice and Chauncy grow more and more insidious. Imaginary creates genuine dread when the life of a little girl hangs in the balance, yet the grown ups in her life are unalarmed.

When the movie gets deeper into its mystery, it starts to buckle under the weight of mythology. As inexplicable events start to occur, the characters are at a loss. Thankfully, the kindly, yet creepy old neighbour, Betty Buckley’s Gloria, has all the exposition in the world to make things simple but she does not save this film.

Imaginary has several ideas that are introduced in the last 20 minutes, but are rushed through without confidence. As a concept is brought up, it’s heavily explained to the audience many times over, as if we’re reading one of Jessica’s books for children. It takes the wind out of the sails for what ought to have been a satisfying finale, but was ultimately a bore to sit through.

I had high hopes fo r Imaginary. The concept of an abandoned imaginary friend reunited with the child that left them, was rife with possibilities, but got squandered by too many jump scares, and an overcomplicated mythos. It’s not offensively bad, but it’s a disappointment through and through.

Rating: Catch It On Cable.

Damian Levy is a film critic and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.