夫と継娘2人と共に暮らす絵本作家のジェシカ（ディワンダ・ワイズ）は、悪夢に悩まされる現在の環境を変えようと、幼い頃暮らしていた家に引っ越すことに。その家の地下室で次女のアリス（パイパー・ブラウン）が見つけたのは、古びたテディベアだった。アリスがそのテディベアに“チョンシー”と名付け、可愛がっていたところ、次第に家族に異変が起こり始め……。
製作費: $10,000,000 (15億円)
興行収入: $43,778,760 (66億円)
推定収支: $33,778,760 (51億円)
※製作費・興行収入はTMDBのデータを参照しています。収支は(興行収入 - 製作費)で算出したFindKey独自の推定値であり、広告宣伝費や諸経費は含まれません (1ドル=150円換算)。
監督: Jeff Wadlow
脚本: Jeff Wadlow / Jason Oremland / Greg Erb
音楽: Bear McCreary
制作: DeWanda Wise / Paul B. Uddo / Jeff Wadlow
撮影監督: James McMillan
制作会社: Blumhouse Productions / Tower of Babble Entertainment / Lionsgate
Anyone remember an half-naked Tom Payne getting pulled into a barrel of hookers by Stellan Skarsgård in "the Physician" (2013)? That vision might just have forgiven this film had he featured a bit more, but clearly he had read the derivative script and decided it only merited one filming day - hence he hardly features at all. What does feature is the usual dysfunctional family malarkey with him newly married to the well-meaning animator "Jessica" (DeWanda Wise) who is trying to stay on friendly terms with his two daughters - the teenage "Taylor" (Taegen Burns) and the younger "Alice" (Pyper Braun). The family decide to move into her father's house - he is now in a care home - and quickly the youngest discovers a bear. Yep - a teddy bear. What can go wrong? Well it isn't a very nice bear, indeed it's distinctly malevolent and is soon trying to lure all of them (except Tom who has fled the proceedings by now) into a parallel reality with lots of rooms containing lots of scenarios. Some benign, so less so. Poor old "Jess" is soon at her wits end but fortunately neighbour "Gloria" (Betty Buckley) is on hand with some pearls of wisdom that might help them through this rapidly menacing quagmire! Or will they? This film plays out exactly as you would expect. There isn't an original bone in it's body, the acting is mediocre at best - but wait, it's nowhere near as banal as the extracts from the Janet & John book of horror film writing. Some of the dialogue here really does have you staring at the cinema ceiling in disbelief. It's another standard Blumhouse offering that passes the time without you having to engage your brain in the slightest - in fact, you could just watch the last ten minutes and miss very little from the rest of it.
Pyper Braun merits praise, <em>'Imaginary'</em> otherwise falls flat. I was never locked into the story and I didn't really care for the characters at any point, even Braun's Alice isn't all that interesting despite a rather great performance from the young actress. DeWanda Wise is a bit dull, while Tom Payne disappoints somewhat - I mean he only has a small role, sure, but his acting is unconvincing... and I know he can actor far better, as seen during his time on TV's <em>'<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(TV_series)" rel="nofollow">The Walking Dead</a>'</em>. The antagonists in this are poorly utilized, the poster bear is prevalent but very boring. It needed a Chucky-esque portrayal, rather than the blank stare we get every few minutes. The ending also drags, I thought it was going to end sooner a few times but it kept finding new ways to stick around; nothing majorly grating, granted. The score is at least OK. It also, amusingly, took me ages to work out what the bear's name was. I'm not familiar with the name "Chauncey", so genuinely for the longest time thought the name was either "John C" or "Shaun C". It was only when I finally noticed it written down visually that I realised! 😂 In conclusion, credit to Braun but everyone else onscreen and off it could've done better in my opinion.
