It may not be the first miss from the studio, but with Jeff Wadlow‘s Imaginary, a question arises: Do we need Blumhouse anymore? Or is the studio inadequate at a time when studio horror has become far more high quality? In the modern landscape of studio horror, one name has dominated the space: Blumhouse. Much like New Line Cinema in their prime years, Blumhouse has made a name for themselves by making low-budget horror with the promise of high rewards to come. This strategy has led to some phenomenal pieces of modern horror (The Invisible Man, Sinister), but unfortunately, quantity has been the name of the game over quality. At first, Blumhouse’s efforts were admirable, but after over a decade, their work has become more frustrating than exciting.
It’s Just in My Imagination
Imaginary follows Jessica (DeWanda Wise), a young step-mother who moves into her childhood home with her new family. As Jessica works to establish relationships with her step-children, Alice (Pyper Braun), the youngest child, finds a teddy bear named Chauncey in the basement. The two become friends, which starts innocent, but as Alice becomes attached to the stuffed toy, darkness begins to take over the house, and troubling secrets begin to bubble up to the surface.
The premise here is simple and not entirely original. Children are a key focus point for horror movies; for Imaginary, that doesn’t change. Alice is a young child filled with imagination but also with trauma as she struggles to cope with living without her mother. In that case, the relationship between Jessica and Alice is a struggle. When they aren’t spending time together, there’s tension around the house as a feeling of unnaturalness becomes known. When they spend time together, Jessica is distracted by work and deadlines. There’s a solid foundation here for some interesting character work akin to something like Poltergeist (especially when the character of Chauncey is introduced), but pretty quickly, the cracks within the film’s narrative begin to show.
The Killer Is Inside the House
The unoriginality of Imaginary is very noticeable, and unfortunately, this drives a massive wrench into every attempt the film makes to drum up emotion or suspense. There’s an unshakeable feeling here that crops up as if we’ve seen this before, but perhaps most shockingly, the film’s derivative nature comes from it taking pieces from Blumhouse’s filmography. As the film barrels towards its third act, it does so painfully slowly as it works through all the same beats in the exact way you’d expect. There’s the distortion of reality, the lame and unnecessary side characters who wander through weak jump scare sequences, and even the wise older woman who lives and breathes exposition at every turn. The lead villain, in the form of Chauncey, isn’t threatening and, instead, like the rest of the film, goes through the same cliches you expect.
When Imaginary approaches the third act, it does so at a snail’s pace. Unfortunately, despite the relative fun there is to be had in some scenes due to some of the visual tricks it has up its sleeve, it’s never able to escape feeling derivative. When you have characters wandering around empty rooms while spooky monsters wait around to do their stock jump scares, it’s impossible not to think about films like Insidious or even Night Swim from a few months prior. Both films come from Blumhouse and, at least in the case of the former, perform many of these tricks at a much more classy level. It might be the only part where the film comes to life, but it’s not worth the journey you’re forced to go on to get there and not really forgivable when matched to all of Blumhouse’s better work.
The House of Blum Is Falling
The truth is, Imaginary is not the worst thing Blumhouse has produced. However, it feels like one of their laziest. The characters and the premise here are sound. The concept of exploring our relationship with our imagination and the characters we create from it is fascinating to think about. Still, in the end, Imaginary uses this as a whole lot of window dressing. Much of what is here is surface-level and devoid of excitement. Instead, The story feels overly mechanical as these characters walk through their emotional beats in robotic ways. The big sweeping emotional resolutions become lost in the noise of cheap horror thrills that fail to satisfy.
Imaginary feels like a film that’s out of steam before it has the chance to hit the engine, and frankly, that sentiment can be extended to Blumhouse’s recent output. Imaginary might not be patient zero of the studio’s issues, but it’s an unfortunate casualty in their descent to mediocrity. Nothing here feels original, and when the studio has been at the forefront of so many fresh horror franchises and original concepts, that simply isn’t good enough.
‘Imaginary’ – Final Thoughts
Imaginary admittedly has some nice visuals and the occasional fun directorial stroke that adds minimal charm to the film, but overall, there’s just not much here with substance. After the solid range of films we’ve had through the studio horror pipeline, the space for Blumhouse consistently releasing these stinkers to a mass audience seems to be shrinking. When you don’t have the IP power of Five Nights at Freddy’s or the intriguing scripts of some of the studio’s best work, you’re left with a film that simply exists to come and go with no real fanfare. Expectations may be low for this one, but unfortunately, it cannot even hit those.
