Imaginary (2024)

Chauncey is a teddy bear with a scavenger hunt, and Imaginary never figures out whether he’s cute or creepy, so he lands as neither. DeWanda Wise plays Jessica, a children’s book author who moves her new family into her childhood home, where her stepdaughter Alice finds the bear and adopts him as a best friend. The early stretch has some promise, with Jessica’s nightmares and a neighbor, Gloria, who remembers things about Jessica’s childhood that Jessica can’t. Then the scavenger hunt opens a door to a realm called the Never Ever, and the movie turns into a muddle of rules about what happens to imaginary friends when kids stop playing with them. Wise, Pyper Braun and Taegen Burns are better than the material. The bear, sadly, is not. Critics gave it 25% on Rotten Tomatoes, though it made $43.8 million worldwide. A 2.4 because a solid idea gets buried under its own lore. $81.46 says somebody suggests a scavenger hunt at the next kids’ party and you quietly volunteer to sit this one out.

What works: DeWanda Wise and the young actors are committed, and the idea of an imaginary friend who holds a grudge is a good one.

What doesn’t: The story gets lost in lore and rules once it reaches the Never Ever, and Chauncey just isn’t scary.

Who it’s for: Younger horror fans looking for a mild scare on a sleepover night.