https://www.tribute.ca/posters/imaginary/174145/
Blumhouse strikes back with yet another horror movie coming soon to theaters! To all you horror fans, get ready for Imaginary coming on a set date of March 8th, 2024. The film has yet to be rated, but after analyzing the movie trailer, I believe it will likely be a PG-13 movie. Blumhouse has been successful with its past movies, but will this one be just as popular as the others? Let’s discuss.
From the producers of M3GAN and Five Nights At Freddy’s, Imaginary, according to IMDb.com, will be about a woman who returns to her childhood home and finds out that the imaginary friend she left behind is real and is unhappy that she left him. From the movie trailer, we can predict that DeWanda Wise, who plays Jessica, used to own an imaginary friend, a teddy bear named Chauncey, before leaving him.
After that, we can also predict that Jessica returns to her childhood home and meets Alice (played by Pyper Braun), who found Chauncey and now owns him. Alice might also be possessed, considering the scene where Alice needs to do something that hurts so that Chauncey can “take her on a trip to the place he’s from.” Through Alice’s perspective, she slams her hand onto a board with a yellow dandelion, when in reality, she just slammed her hand onto a board with a nail.
To add to my theory about Alice being possessed, she suddenly goes missing in the trailer, and Jessica and Taylor (played by Taegen Burns) devote themselves to rescuing Alice. This may mean Alice could have run off with Chauncey or been kidnapped. However, that is all we know for now.
Now, what do I think about the movie? I am just waiting to see it once it is released. The film has some potential to be a huge success, but at the same time, something feels disappointing. What I mean by that is that Blumhouse’s films this year are about a kid forgetting the real world to be with their “friend,” who ends up being evil, eventually leading to them becoming a damsel in distress and having an adult to save them. While I believe it is an exciting story, it feels reused by Blumhouse, especially when compared to M3GAN, where Cady gets too addicted to Megan, the crazy robot girl, and eventually learns too late that she is evil the entire time.
At the same time, in Five Nights at Freddy’s, we have Abby, who gets too close to the animatronics and realizes too late that they have been trying to kill her the entire time and make her into an animatronic just like them. However, at the end of the story, the animatronics are good and help kill the story’s antagonist. Now, we have a third movie in a row this year that’s so similar to M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s. While each film has a different setting, theme, and perspective, the story feels overused in Blumhouse.
Aside from that, there are a few things I want to compliment about this movie. Something that immediately caught my interest was the song used during the trailer. The line, “It was just my imagination” was used various times throughout the trailer. I researched a bit and found that this song is called “Just My Imagination” (Running Away with Me) by The Temptations and was released on January 14th, 1971. That song was a nice touch to the trailer. I also like the scenes used in the trailer. It reminds me of other movies like the Insidious series and Before I Wake.
Overall, I hope this encourages you to watch the movie. I might watch it when it comes out or later, but it’s best to grab your popcorn and watch it at a movie theater with your friends or family. However, move aside Freddy Fazbear for now because Chauncey is making his grand debut in the new movie!