Imaginary takes audiences on a terrifying, twisted adventure into the world of a child’s imagination, exploring long-buried trauma and the otherworldliness of imaginary friends. Jessica, along with her new family, moves back to her childhood home as she tries to find her place as a wife and stepmother. Her youngest stepdaughter, Alice, bonds with Jessica’s childhood teddy bear, Chauncey, but what begins as an adorable connection devolves into something much darker. Jessica needs to delve into her own psyche to save Alice and soon learns that abandoning her childhood imaginary friends may have deadly consequences.
DeWanda Wise (who also serves as producer on Imaginary) leads the cast as Jessica, who is pulled back into the supernatural world that left her with deep trauma as a child. The impressive cast also includes Pyper Braun as Jessica’s youngest stepdaughter Alice, whose connection with Chauncey kicks off the plot; Taegen Burns as her older sister Taylor; Tom Payne as their musician father Max; and horror legend Betty Buckley as Jessica’s neighbor and former babysitter turned occult expert Gloria. Jeff Wadlow and Jason Blum team up once again after the success of Truth or Dare, which brought a horrific twist to a classic game.
Where To Watch Imaginary: Showtimes & Streaming Status
Blumhouse has another horror movie ready for audiences, and this is where to watch Imaginary in theaters with showtimes or on streaming later.
Screen Rant interviewed Imaginary star and producer DeWanda Wise about leading Blumouse’s newest 2024 horror movie. She explained what she loves about the horror genre as an actor and her desire to play more in this world with Chauncey. Wise also heaped tons of praise on her young co-star, Braun.
DeWanda Wise Talks The Greek Tragedy Of Imaginary & Pyper Braun’s Prowess
Screen Rant: Imaginary, man. What an amazing psychological horror mixed with childhood trauma, and I feel like this is the perfect gateway movie for young fans to get introduced into the horror genre, especially the Blumhouse horror genre. You play Jessica, who creates childhood books to understand her own childhood trauma. What attracted you to the role of Jessica?
DeWanda Wise: I naturally gravitate to any character in a story who I feel like is already real, who already feels fully drawn and drawn enough that I can really fill out the rest. If I see a character on a page and I feel like, “Oh, wow, if I insert the core of my being into this construction, I really feel like audiences will be there for the ride.” So that was my intention. And the thing about horror in general is it’s the closest equivalent to a nerdy actor who trained in theater gets to Greek tragedy. There’s no stakes like it. It’s literally life or death.
Absolutely, absolutely. Taegen and Pyper are fantastic in this film as well, and I love seeing all three of you together. Pyper is a little scene-stealer. Can you talk about working with them and what they brought to their characters that wasn’t on the page?
DeWanda Wise: Pyper was the only actor for that role. I mean, I love casting. I’ve always loved casting. One of my closest friends is a casting director. And when I met with Jeff, part of our conversation was you work with the young performers. And a lot of times when you’re the lead, there’s co-directing happening.
There’s a lot of co-directing. A lot of times with kids you have to walk them through the beats. You know what I mean? You’ll go, “Now, look up at that.” All the things that kind of come naturally when you’re an older performer, the things you take for granted, you really have to walk a child through.
Pyper is a pro. This is not Pyper Braun’s first lifetime. It cannot be. She came in, the emotional availability that you see in the movie is hers. And we cast the family around Pyper Braun. We had to. We had to find that kid. We had to find Alice. And she has it all. She’s adorable, so you see her and you’re just like, you want to take care of her, so just on a completely superficial level. And I don’t know if you’ve interviewed her yet, but she really just drops into character.
She does.
DeWanda Wise: She drops into character. If you see her work on Nickelodeon, she knows the difference between genres. She intentionally wanted to work in the horror space. And then you bring in Taegen, who we cast after, and she’s able to bring this level of, that is a very common horror movie thing, like seeing the teen girl in a horror movie. We think we know what the teen girl in a horror movie is.
An undercurrent, under the surface of Taegen’s take on Taylor and that attitude, because Taegen is such a lovely, caring person, you feel it. You feel the tension between her attitude and this sense of what she’s hiding, what the pain is, what the undercurrent of pain is. So both of them, really my job was a little tip and trick here and there, but my main job was to protect them at all costs, even through press.
DeWanda Wise Hopes Chauncey’s Story Isn’t Over
Well, let me ask you this. Do you think we’ve seen the last of Chauncey?
DeWanda Wise: I hope not. But I also hope that we see a different iteration of Chauncey.
Oh, that’s interesting.
DeWanda Wise: Chauncey can manifest, as you can imagine, in a multitude of ways. And it’s a really rich world and I do hope they make good on it.
About Imaginary
When Jessica (DeWanda Wise) moves back into her childhood home with her family, her youngest stepdaughter Alice (Pyper Braun) develops an eerie attachment to a stuffed bear named Chauncey she finds in the basement. Alice starts playing games with Chauncey that begin playful and become increasingly sinister.
Check out our other Imaginary interviews here:
- Jason Blum & Jeff Wadlow
- Pyper Braun & Taegan Burns
Imaginary
From Blumhouse Productions comes Imaginary, a horror film by director Jeff Wadlow. In the movie, a woman returns to her childhood home and rediscovers her imaginary friend isn’t all that imaginary, left bitter from the abandonment they experienced.
- Director
- Jeff Wadlow
- Release Date
- March 6, 2024
- Studio(s)
- Blumhouse Productions
- Distributor(s)
- Lionsgate
- Writers
- Greg Erb , Bryce McGuire , Jason Oremland
