Imaginary is the latest waste of celluloid from Blumhouse – as if Five Nights At Freddy’s wasn’t bad enough, this one led by aspiring mother Jessica (DeWanda Wise – Jurassic World: Dominion), who has dreams about a spider, while writing a set of children’s books called Molly Millipede. So, no wonder her head’s full of insects!
She and husband Max (Tom Payne – Prodigal Son, The Physician) are moving into her old grandma’s house where she grew up as a kid, although once he’s spoken in some early scenes, he basically goes off to work and is never heard from again! They’re a mixed-race couple: She’s black, he has a beard.
He also has two daughters in tow, which Jess is saddled with – moody teen Taylor (Taegen Burns), who is a complete bitch, and younger Alice (Pyper Braun), who soon spots an abandoned teddy bear in the attic and claims it for herself.
Cue creepy old woman Gloria (Betty Buckley – Carrie), who strangely appears in a particular photos – but who isn’t creepy at all, given that she’s just the next door neighbour who used to look after Jess as a kid; throw in the apparent necessary fact that Jess’ Dad is in a care home, plus lots of weird stuff and bad jump scares happening, a psychiatrist getting involved in order to introduce a cliche and lengthen the film where it doesn’t need it, a strange something called the “Never Ever”, and this having infinite corridors like Hellraiser 2, and you have a film that’s pretty much a complete waste of 104 minutes, plus all the ads and trailers before it.
Plus, when a fire breaks out, I’ve seen better CGI flames in a radio play(!)
Imaginary is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 104 minutes
Release date: March 8th 2024
Studio: Lionsgate Movies
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 2/10
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Producers: Jason Blum, Paul Uddo, Jeff Wadlow
Screenplay: Greg Erb, Jason Oremland, Jeff Wadlow
Music: Omer Ben-Zvi, Alexandre Cote, Kevin Lax, Bear McCreary
Cast:
Jessica: DeWanda Wise
Taylor: Taegen Burns
Alice: Pyper Braun
Gloria: Betty Buckley
Max: Tom Payne
Dr. Soto: Veronica Falcón
Ben: Samuel Salary
Liam: Matthew Sato
Samantha: Alix Angelis
Barbara: Wanetah Walmsley
Young Jessica: Rhythm Hurd
Luis: Noah Martinez
Entity / Humanoid Spider: Michael Bekemeier
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.