Film Journal 2024: Imaginary
Directed by Jeff Wadlow
Imaginary offers some nice surprises in what is ultimately an uneven effort. Top of the list being just how straight up horror this thing was. And I was here for it, including a handful of legitimate jump scares.
The potential was there to hit a home run in terms of the active metaphor, and I do wish it had been slightly stronger on a thematic front. The film does tend to digress into exposition in the latter half, feeling the need to rush to catch up its story, which contrasts with the slower build of the first. There was probably room to simplify things, but then again, the craziness of the plot is part of the fun.
A couple of the characters are little more than archetypal fillers (the father and the older sister), remaining mostly one note and forgettable, but I thought the step-mother and younger sister did a decent enough job of carrying the weight of the story despite a lack of strong dialogue to work with.
There is some nice set design too, especially due to the world building, and some camera tricks that make this worth a rewatch given where the story goes. There’s nothing too revolutionary or crazy here, but it has the flavor of a film that is free to be a but unhinged and do it’s own thing. Which makes it an intriguing, if imperfect, effort at the very least.
The Stories of my Life 