Jessica has had a history of very bad dreams. They’re generally an odd mixture of herself covered in blood, her father stumbling around in a frightening way and some kind of human-sized spider creature.
That last bit is particularly disturbing because she’s made her career as a children’s book author whose beloved characters are anthropomorphized insects: Molly the millipede and Simon the spider.
On the more positive side, there are several good things in Jessica’s life. She’s newly married to a wonderful man, Max. And his kids, teen Taylor and 8-year-old Alice, maze her an instant mom. Jessica’s childhood was scarred by her mother dying of cancer. But now, being a mom herself, gives Jessica a sense of … cathartic healing.
Oh, and on top of all that, she, Max and the kids have just moved into her childhood home. That house was always her happy place. For some reason, her parents allowed her to draw out her budding artistic joy on her bedroom walls. She remembers the delight that creative expression gave her. And, in fact, those colorful drawings are still decorating that room.
All of which makes that bedroom a perfect spot for her ongoing writing.
In fact, after they move into the sprawling old house, the bad dreams stop. It’s a win-win-win. No dreams, she’s closer to her dad (who’s in a local care center) and she has a home in which to grow her new family.
There is one tiny drawback though. After they moved into Jessica’s old home, young Alice started having conversations with an imaginary friend. It’s partially imaginary anyway. That’s because those conversations are aimed at a scruffy old teddy bear that Alice found somewhere.
Jessica isn’t sure who that bear used to belong to. She doesn’t remember it. But that doesn’t matter. The important thing is that Alice, usually sweet and open, has started to isolate herself away with this teddy that she’s named Chauncey. It’s concerning.
If Jessica were to look around more closely though, that concern might increase. Because hidden here and there in her childhood bedroom drawings are small faded images of a teddy bear. It’s a bear that’s always watching, always ready to play.
Jessica may have blocked out memories of this bear, but he remembers her.
And he’s been waiting for her return.
Jessica’s desire to be a good and loving mom is always on display. Fifteen-year-old Taylor is rebellious and tends to keeps her step-mom at arm’s length. But Jessica keeps trying and approaching both girls lovingly. (With time, and through troubling circumstances, Taylor begins to recognize Jessica’s efforts, and the two find ways to bond and draw close.)
Taylor also works intensely to help her little sister once everyone recognizes that something bad is happening.
Alice’s personality shifts with the discovery of her imaginary friend Chauncey. She becomes more secretive and begins playing a strange, and even dangerous, scavenger hunt game devised by Chauncey. But at her core, Alice is still the sweet girl Jessica first met. And the girl clings to Jessica as her mom when things become dire.
Jessica and Max appear to have a loving relationship. (But frankly, he fades out of the picture and sets off on a business trip early on. So, we don’t see much of him.) Jessica eventually finds herself willing to give up her life to protect her new family.
The spiritual elements behind Chauncey are never fully explained. But we’re told by an elderly neighbor (who used to babysit Jessica when she was a child) that every culture has a name for spiritual creatures that interact with humans when they’re children. In our culture, “we call them imaginary friends,” she notes. This woman, Gloria, suggests that these creatures come from a separate dimension of imagination. We see cases of other kids who’ve had these friends. Some have hurt themselves because of those entities, some have disappeared.
And, in fact, we learn that Alice’s scavenger hunt—involving a variety of objects ranging from scary things to beloved things to painful things—is all part of a ritual that will open a door to a spiritual netherworld (called the NeverEver) where the referenced “imaginary friends” reside. It’s a realm where imagination rules and children are drawn in with promises of fulfillment of their heart’s desires. We see a demon-like version of Alice in the NeverEver.
[Spoiler Warning] Alice hears a whispered voice that draws her to a hidden away spot. Chauncey the bear is hidden there. We eventually learn that Chauncey is actually invisible to everyone else except for Jessica and Alice. We also see the dark shadowy entity behind the bear, a creature that stands in the shadows and sometimes transforms into a large, huge-toothed bear or a human sized spider. In time, Alice and Chauncey’s conversation become verbal on both side—Alice voicing Chauncey’s words, too.
Jessica generally wears very formfitting or skimpy shirts (including tiny tank tops and bustier-like tops). And Taylor wears her own teen version of those kinds of shirts, including crop tops and low-cut tees.
Taylor is only 15, but she meets and is attracted to an older teen neighbor named Liam. It’s apparent that he wants to push her toward more adult behavior (drinking, drugs, etc.) We don’t ever see them get physical, but he gives every indication that he wants to take things in that direction.
We see Jessica and Max in bed together. But both are dressed in T-shirts and pajama bottoms.
As you might expect, violent moments here start small and escalate gradually. For instance, Chauncey sends young Alice off on a scavenger hunt. Some of the early items he wants her to look for are things like bugs that scare Alice and things that might “hurt her” or “get her in trouble.” Eventually the requests graduate up to something that would cause great pain. Alice finds a board with a nail protruding from it and intends to slam her hand down on the sharp nail point. Jessica stops her at the last second, scratching the girl’s hand instead.
When Jessica later tries to repeat this item hunt, she slams a pair of scissors into her own hand. We then see the blood-tipped scissors and a bloody bandage that Jessica has wrapped around the wound.
Chauncey becomes more and more frightening as well. He’s initially a scruffy old teddy bear, but then we see the malevolent shadow creature behind him. It becomes a huge bear with protruding large teeth that snaps at Jessica and others. And the entity transforms into a large, spider-like creature with grasping legs and a fanged head.
We see someone grabbed by Chauncey’s large bear version and dragged screaming behind a door. Then a pool of blood seeps out from under the door. Someone is also grabbed by Chauncey’s spider form. When this person looks into the creature’s eyes, his own eyes turn white, and we’re told that his “brain broke.”
In a dream, a bloodied Jessica slides along a wall and leaves a smear of gore in her wake. We see a video of a boy who sliced off his own thumb for an imaginary friend. Alice and Taylor’s biological mom shows up at one point and tackles Jessica to the ground. It’s apparent that the woman is mentally disturbed and potentially dangerous. In fact, we see a large burn scar on Alice’s arm that her mom caused in the past.
Jessica has a ragged scar on her arm, too, caused by a loved one. Jessica falls through an upper-story floor, and we hear her ankle snap. She then gets up and hobbles painfully away. A house is set on fire and burns quickly to the ground.
We hear one f-word and several s-words. We also hear a use or two each of “b–ch” and “a–hole.” God’s name is misused three times, once combined with “d–n.”
When Taylor first meets Liam, he says he can take her to a bar that doesn’t check IDs. Jessica shuts that potential trip down. But later Taylor invites the teen boy into their home (when Jessica is away) and Liam offers her a pill from a small baggie. She refuses. (Someone later suggests the pills were Molly, but Liam’s mother says they were actually her allergy meds.)
While in Taylor’s house, Liam grabs several bottles of booze that he spots. He starts to open one and drops a bottle to the floor where it shatters.
We see Liam urinate (watching from behind him.) Something scares him and he pees on his own shoes.
Horror is one of the more difficult film genres to do well.
I mean, there are lots of different things that we humans find scary, from strange sounds or whispering voices in the dead of night to creepy dolls half-covered in shadow. And many, many movies have used unsettling images and disturbing situations to get an audience’s heart thumping. But finding the right balance of spooky, engrossing and thought provoking isn’t an easy task.
Imaginary is a good example of that fact. The film has a decent collection of horror tropes in its arsenal. There’s a story of past childhood trauma in the mix; an oversized house with cobwebbed and dirty hiding places; a shabby, forgotten teddy bear; a jealous demon; an endangered little kid; a foreboding netherworld; and lots of pitch-black darkness to slip in and out of. But none of those derivative bits and pieces of art house awfulness fit together very well.
Those moviegoers who decide to throw the door open anyway and stare deep into a terrible teddy’s black plastic eyes will find some positive interludes of parental protection. They’ll also wallow in some intense little-girl-in-peril scenes as well as demonic sharp-toothed moments.
More than anything, however, viewers will probably end the evening feeling dissatisfied. They’ll be left to wonder how they could have spent their time more … imaginatively.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
