Meet Chauncey.
He’s not Imaginary,
And he’s not your friend.

The team at Blumhouse are amassing a veritable who’s who of malevolent and iconic horror villains that are probably being lined up to meet up in the not too distant future, either battling each other in the style of Jason vs Freddy or in a supervillains vs all humans stylee.

In fact, Chauncey the Bear, introduced here in the latest horror outing from Blumhouse has his seeds in Sir Frederick of Krueger, with the realm of imagination taking the place of the dream country of Elm Street. Add in a touch of tone from Hellraiser with Chauncey having such sights to show us and a sprinkle of Alice in Wonderland, or more like Alice in Terrorland and you have Imaginary.

Jessica moves back into her childhood home with her husband and his two daughters only to find that there is still unfinished business from her own childhood waiting to attack the youngest girl and this comes in the form of a teddy bear, Chauncey.

DeWanda Wise as Jessica in Imaginary

I’ll be real, as I sat in the darkened room watching this, I was unsure whether or not I was enjoying it.
It sets up the premise seemingly predictably, some of the acting was a bit stage-schooley at times and the main couple didn’t really have any chemistry to make me believe they were really in love, more like besties without the romance.

DeWanda Wise plays Jessica and is believable as the surrogate mother, as is Taegan Burns, who plays the teenage step daughter, Taylor. Nobody is outrightly bad but there were a few line readings that felt overly acted including from award winning actress Betty Buckley, who plays the elderly neighbour, Gloria, who may or may not be creepy (she was in one of my favourite tv shows of all time, HBO’s Oz), but as the film got going I started to appreciate it more and as it moved into the latter third, the main course of the film emerged and the imagination promised came to life. My nit pickings were a minor and all in all I had an enjoyable time watching the adventures of Chauncey the Bear and his friends.

Hide and seek
Chauncey the Bear and Alice (Pyper Braun) in Imaginary

I have a podcast with my friend called Punching Up the Movie Podcast where we take a film that is revered in one way or another and one of us has a problem with it and we discuss, debate and sometimes destroy. I’d recently been thinking about how loads of people really rate Hal Ashby ( I like The Last Detail) and they especially love his film, Being There, starring Peter Sellers from 1979 and how much I didn’t like it. This is a film that I’m gonna suggest we put through the Punching Up mill. The reason I mention this is that the main character Sellers plays is called Chance and he is a gardener but is misheard at one point and is then named Chauncey Gardner.

I want to see a film where Chauncey the bear terrorises Chauncey Gardener. 

Come on A.I., make it happen….Pleeeeeaaaaase.

I reckon Chauncey the bear could take on all of the Five Nights at Freddy’s losers but maybe would meet his match against M3gan but Chauncey the bear and M3gan vs the FNAF lot….that I might even go and see.

When you pull the string on Chauncey’s back you get a piece of music that reminded me of the ‘Three more days to Halloween….Silver Shamrock’ tune from Halloween 3 Season of the Witch. When I was a child I had a Chauncey like bear and if you pulled his string it used to say “I’ll protect you, and keep you safe from harm” which is just as creepy.

The music for the film was composed by the mighty Bear McCreary whose work I first heard in 2003 with his superb score for Battlestar Galactica, the rebooted series. Here, his tone is spot on.

Written and directed by Jason Wadlow (Kick Ass 2, Truth or Dare, Fantasy Island), here he introduces us to a character that is almost guaranteed to get at least one sequel. He peppers the film with darkened, barely visible characters in the back of frame at times that inject an unsettling creepiness to the proceedings.

Look out horror franchises, Blumhouse is looking to create new I.P. with dolls and teddy bears.

Out now at a cinema near you
1 Hour 44 Mins