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Parrish Lewis/Blumhouse
Billboard Women in Music 2024
After the enormous PG-13 success of both m3gan with his terrifying robotic doll and then Five nights at Freddy’s With his animatronic rock band, Blumhouse has now turned to a familiar childhood companion, a seemingly innocent teddy bear named Chauncey, to send carefully calculated chills through Imaginary. It’s a formula that removes the R-rated clarity of the horror genre, something Blumhouse knows well, and makes it more palatable to a younger audience by not only reducing the bloodshed, but also bringing it to a level where children could identify. . And what better than putting familiar toys at the center of the action, in every case guaranteed to stir up our demons and make us jump out of our seats.
There is no reason to believe that Imaginary will not be successful either, and this one from director and co-writer Jeff Wadlow (Truth or Dare) delves into psychological horror, the genuine fears of a young man, by telling the story of a blended family facing their greatest fears and leading to an all-out occult assault on their worst imagined thoughts.
The title of the film comes into play here, as the evil found is not so clearly in sight. The key character, Chauncey, has a seemingly innocent appearance, but is subtly able to change his expression or simply appear mysteriously without warning while he continues to appear inanimate. He is abandoned in a corner of a new home where young Alice (Pyper Braun) finds him and immediately makes him her friend, no matter how “imaginary” this relationship may seem at first. She and her older teenage sister Taylor (Taegen Burns) are the stepdaughters of Jessica (DeWanda Wise), who has moved out of a New Orleans apartment with her new husband and father of the two girls, Max (Tom Payne). Still haunted by nightmares of his own past and with an institutionalized father, Ben (Sam Salary), Max believes a change of pace is necessary and arranges for the family to move into Jessica’s childhood home. Hey, that’s not a good idea.
While Max, a rock musician, must go on tour, Jessica is left as the head of the girls in a house where she slowly begins to become frightened by the increasingly alarming behavior of Alice and Chauncey (especially with that list written in crayons). “scavenger”). hunt items”), but now he must face her too. own demons and the fact that the bear left behind was once yours and perhaps now she is the leader of a darker world that still lives, but not exclusively, in her dreams. The context for all this is provided by neighbor Gloria (Betty Buckley), who once babysat Jessica, noticed her attachment to the bear and suspected something otherworldly was going on there. She delved into all of this and became an expert in the hidden and spiritual realms arising from a child’s “imagination.” Now that Alice is in the same boat and in the same house, Gloria has the chance to prove that her wild theories and her detailed work are correct after all.
There are a few twists, a couple of twists and even some good old-fashioned excuses to scream if you so choose. Wadlow is smart enough to know that in the oversaturated horror genre the best way forward might not be what we actually see (as compared to harrowing high-definition images) but what we actually see. think we see. It is effective in its own way, especially because Imaginary seems initially created to be just an extension of this sub-horror genre that has been brought to vivid life by the likes of annabelle and chuky among others outside the Blumhouse house.
It’s helpful to have a game cast and there’s one on board here, starting with Wise, also an executive producer, who believably brings Jessica’s past to life as the new experience in her old house comes back to haunt her. Braun is fantastic, not at all cloying, in a role that today seems like a cliché in this type of film. Burns makes a strong impression, as does Salany, the latter seen in flashbacks and in the present day as the institutionalized father harboring dark secrets. Buckley, essentially as Lin Shaye, makes the older, slightly creepy neighbor a real hoot. This Tony-winning star adds plenty of gravitas and knocks it out of the park, particularly when the action turns to the place beyond the walls known as “Neverland.” Each of these films builds to an overwrought manic climax and this one is no different in that regard with the emerging Entity and the bloated Bear Beast at hand, but Wadlow keeps everything in check as to not destroy the heart of his story as well.
A haunting and melodious musical theme is used exceptionally well here, almost resembling the children’s soundtrack provided by Elmer Bernstein in his classic. Kill a Mockingbird score. It’s hugely effective and the film’s music is credited to Sparks and Shadows, with an end-credits acknowledgment to composer Bear McCreary for his additional work.
The producers are Jason Blum and Wadlow.
Qualification: Imaginary
Distributor: leonsgate
Release date: March 8, 2024
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Screenwriters: Jeff Wadlow, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland
Cast: DeWanda Wise, Pyper Braun, Taegen Burns, Tom Payne, Betty Buckley, Alix Angelis, Sam Salary, Matthew Sato, Veronica Falcon
Classification: PG-13
Execution time: 1 hour and 44 minutes