Imaginary (2024) Dir: Jeff Wadlow
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This Jeff Wadlow directed horror film hasn't exactly achieved great ratings since it came out in early 2024, but I was still tempted into watching it by its odd trailer and, in truth, a little boredom. I was at least prepared for a bad horror film, which I hoped would allow me to see the funny side of it.
There's no way of getting around it; this really was a bad film. It was tropy, unoriginal, repetitive, boring and poorly written. That's not to mention the quite awful acting from nearly the whole cast. I did at least find that amusing, a fact which definitely made the film more watchable.
The film's visuals were mostly quite underwhelming, although, I do want to compliment the use of animatronics and practical effects for the monster. Sure, it wasn't all that scary, but it's always so cool to see animatronics instead of CGI. It just looks better, and gives the film a little more realism in a way.
The film's narrative wasn't great. It lacked much in the way of creativity, which is ironic, considering much of the story is built on the notion of creativity. There was one mildly decent twist, but everything else failed to rouse any significant reaction from me. It didn't help that the dialogue was genuinely amateurish, at points.
DeWanda Wise was the only actor in the film that I actually enjoyed the acting of. I think she made everyone else look legitimately terrible. I wouldn't even say she was exceptional, but she was certainly more competent than the rest of the film's cast.
I really wasn't a fan of the other actors in the film, but Taegen Burns and Veronica Falcón were at least passable, for a fair amount of their screentime. Despite some poor acting, I'll still give mentions to Pyper Braun, Betty Buckley and Tom Payne. The one thing I will say, is that Braun, being so young, has a lot of time to improve.
Overall, this was, unfortunately, one of the worst films of the year. That said, I did find some entertainment in it, even if that was mainly because the terrible aspects were quite amusing. It's a bizarre film, and it does almost nothing well. The only real positive was the use of animatronics, and even that is barely featured.
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