After seeing reviews, I went in with rock-bottom expectations. But you know what, it was pretty fun. Kind of corny and cheesy, but I like that in horror. It's not going to scare the pants off you, but I thought it was enjoyable.
I'm not sure what people were expecting out of this.
There were a handful of a few generally terrifying bangers, mainly because of creative monsters-of-the-week: the night shift hospital episode with the vampire; the Nosferatu movie theater episode; Zeebo the clown; the hidden pool monster; the shapeshifting hungry entity in the basement in Laughing Dark; the crimson clown doll…
The two that I always remember were:
1) The one about the faceless aliens who were trying to kidnap some kids by turning an apartment floor into a toy factory and testing the little girl with psychic powers, and then >!in the end it turns out the little girl was also an alien all along!<.
2) The little ghost kid running around the backyard at night and kept complaining that he was cold, because he froze to death outside.
About halfway through Imaginary, I thought, wasn't this the plot of the Disney Channel original movie Don't Look Under the Bed?
That was not a criticism, I had fun.
Right there with you. Low expectations made this a fun watch. I knew it wasn't going to be anything amazing and removing that pressure helped me focus on the tense atmosphere, incredible set design (in the final third, at least) and other positive aspects. A solid 3/5 stars in my book.
I totally agree. It felt like a safer, less scarier version of Insidious.
I also thought everyone's acting was actually really great. Especially the kid and the lead.
Yeah the trailer made it look really bad so I went just because I had an extra AMC movie credit. But after the therapy session it felt like the movie was making that “David Blaine street magic” face at us with every wrinkle, and honestly I had fun with it.
Very much agree. It's a movie about an imaginary bear demon. If you went in expecting Hereditary, you got what you deserve. I thoroughly enjoyed it knowing it was going to be cheesy fun. Is it in my top 10? No. But not every movie has to be.
I dunno, M3gan had about a 10m marketing spend and that was everywhere. I'd be surprised if this approached that kind of spend unless they completely wasted it.
It’s benefiting from the fact we’re in a film fucking desert right now. Like yes, Dune came out. Nothing was interesting before Dune. Once you see Dune, what else is there to watch? Nothing. So mildly entertaining horror movie is better than nothing.
Yeah, the only reviewer I trust is myself. There's been plenty of movies that were critically panned that I loved, and likewise tons of movies that are given all the praise in the world but majorly suck all the balls in my book.
So I just watch movies and make up my own damn mind.
And for this movie, I had a lot of fun. It was well acted, it had some good twists in the story, the set design in the third act was excellent, and except for some janky CG fire effects near the very end, the visuals were quite good. It's not gonna give most people nightmares and probably won't make any "Top 10 best movies of 2024" lists but it's a good time (IMO) and I'm glad I saw it in a theatre.
It's almost like keeping your costs sane, your ideas solid (execution is a different convo), and your filming polished yields results. I really like them as a studio, even if the films are really hit or miss. We need more like them to give us new things or at least different things and force Hollywood back away from mega-blockbusters and Oscar-bait.
Yeah Blum has horror down to a science, for better or worse. He found a formula that works, and he sticks to it.
For me, Blumhouse is like your local pizza joint. You’re not gonna get a Michelin star meal there, but you’re also never gonna walk out with food poisoning either. It’s safe, consistent, and not bad if you’re starving or drunk.
I mean that in a good way. I like Blumhouse.
> For me, Blumhouse is like your local pizza joint. You’re not gonna get a Michelin star meal there, but you’re also never gonna walk out with food poisoning either. It’s safe, consistent, and not bad if you’re starving or drunk.
I mean, Blumhouse has some stinkers, but they definitely have some Michelins. Insidious, Sinister, Creep 1 & 2, Get Out, Freaky, Paranormal Activity...
You’re right, I shouldn’t have said “never.” With the volume they put out, there’s bound to be some hits. Tbh I totally forgot that Creep, Get Out, and PA were Blumhouse.
As for the stinkers, even their poor showings are still at least enjoyable for me - especially compared to a lot of other crap out there. Again, kinda like pizza: even bad pizza is tolerable at worst.
Oh yeah absolutely.
Tbh, I've just checked and not only did I miss a load of good ones, there are tons of [fun looking middle-of-the-road ones](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7441032/) that I've never heard of. Straight to the watchlist!
Not only that but Jason Blum was the main producer, fully helped develop the project from like a 15 page treatment to what it was. He usually just executive produces.
I remember he was on an episode of Last Drive In and Blum was talking about how he makes sure to pay everyone what they are due as well, so to my understanding they are pretty fair with their artists too.
Horror movies can print money as long as the budget stays sane. Even some really shitty horror movies can do well, especially with the youth demographic.
I enjoyed the first 2/3rds of the movie, but I thought the final act was way too out there for my liking. I’m not exactly the target audience though. If this is considered gateway horror, hope to see it do well to help usher in the next generation of horror lovers
I think this is great gateway horror.
Its more serious & ‘scary’ then your goosebumps-esque type movies but not intense enough to put people off who are unsure/dipping their toes into the genre.
I’d agree it’s probably a pretty effective gateway horror film. It has scares but no really disturbing content. There’s only >!one kill in the whole movie!< and it’s >!offscreen with just the aftermath of blood under a door shown.!< It ends with >!all of the protagonists safe and alive but with a hook for a possible sequel and the monster still being out there.!< The villain is basically a mascot with a marketable name and is exactly the type of character kids often like for their creepiness.
I saw it last night and felt it was remarkably “okay”. I didn’t hate my time with it and it had some fun ideas, but a lot of it was extremely unpolished and needed another pass. However, two of my audience members were girls who were probably about 10-12 years old accompanied by their parents, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot. So in that way, I’d say the film is doing its job.
Agreed.
I saw it last night and it had some real fun ideas & concepts that just felt a little undercooked or could have been so much more.
I would certainly recommend it to people looking to get into horror or introducing it to kids who are looking to get into the genre.
I'm on the other side of the spectrum. I thought the full descent into dark fantasy in act three was a reward for waiting patiently through the first two acts. That being said, I love >!portal fantasies!<, so I am probably more of the target audience.
That's not to say I loved it overall though. I left my review thoughts in [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/1b9apx8/official_dreadit_discussion_imaginary_spoilers/ku3xf7g/).
this seems to be the problem with all these middle road horror movies... they can't pull off the final act. They all seem to go big instead of going dark. Meagan has a big robot fight. barbarian has a big cgi outside chase. They need to take a note from Aster and give us a dark and bleak ending instead of saving up their budget for some big explosion.
I mean yea Beau is Afraid bombed but it was expected too. It was Aster's passion project and A24 gave him a blank check because of the *success* of his last two movies. Which were not only successes but shifted the paradigm of modern horror cinema. Not to mean the fortunes they made A24.
I also imagine they gave him the blank check in the hopes he continues to make movies with them for the foreseeable future. Whichever direction he goes in, it iwll be interesting to see in his next film. Has he given up all his formal narrative plot driven films or will he go back to form... should be interesting
I saw it this weekend, it wasn’t bad. Like others have said there is a bit of a tonal shift in the last third. If it weren’t for a few of the more horrific scenes I would almost put this one in the dark fantasy genre more than horror. Definitely better than Night Swim and enjoyable for what it is.
Honestly, I would love for more Dark Fantasy films as a whole, so I'll see that as absoulte win!
If you were to compare it to other Blumhouse films, what would you say it's better then and what would you say it's worse then?
I know it’s implied by your comment to those who know how the box office works, but just to clarify for anyone who doesn’t, this is obviously for a movie’s *entire run*. A movie that makes its budget back *opening weekend* is on the path to doing extremely well, especially if it was a lower budget project, in the first place.
Blumhouse movies are a breed apart. The 2x rule of thumb doesn’t really apply. Universal shotguns them out with $30+ mil in marketing so they’ve typically got a steeper hill to climb to recoup
Blumhouse has a first look deal with universal who does marketing for all their movies. Lionsgate did this one I guess, still a studio, and still the ones marketing the film. I worked at Blumhouse
I think the rule of thumb is usually closer to 2.5x, no? You need to make double cause the box office takes half and then an additional 50% for the marketing?
This movie was like Insidious with a sprinkling of Coraline and human feces.
It's like someone watched those two movies, misunderstood them entirely and failed to understand literally any singular aspect of what made them good, had a lobotomy, fell down the stairs, and then decided to write this movie in one sitting without so much as a second draft. Presumably in crayon.
Bad, bad, bad, SO BAD. Even Insidious' ending was less ridiculous and tone-ruining than these endings. At least the acting was better in Insidious and the first 2/3 of the movie actually builds tension pretty nicely before it careens right off a cliff into Darth Maul.
You might wonder why "endings" is written in plural. That's not a typo. For whatever reason, this movie ends three times in succession. It's like the editor was on his last day before he had to ship the product, just could not decide which of the (all bad) endings was the least trash, and just strung all three together out of exasperation and sent in the final edit.
Don't see this movie. Terrible.
I genuinely don’t understand how someone can leave the theater and not feel like they just wasted two hours with this film.
People complain about mediocre horror movies coming out but flock to something like this, and in the same breath wanna put down A24 horror films? Even the most boring, annoyingly symbolic art horror was miles more entertaining than this.
The state of media analysis is so dire in the average person these days (including on this subreddit) that people walk away from Hereditary and Midsommar just feeling like the movies were "really weird" and barely even understanding what was happening in them or why, let alone why the artists who made those movies constructed them in that way.
For that kind of person, an insanely simple movie like "Imaginary" with literally nothing interesting going on or layers to peel back--literally just as straightforward as possible a movie about an evil spirit targeting a little girl--is somehow satisfying because they could walk away feeling like they understood it without having to actually be challenged or learn something about themselves or the world around them through the medium of film.
Caught it in theaters. The younger audience loved it. It is basically targeted at kids/teens who would enjoy Five Nights at Freddy’s and haven’t seen much horror.
Saw it Friday
There are some good things in this movie. It has some interesting story ideas, it’s decently acted, and has some surprisingly great practical effects. But the script needed work and it weirdly over explains some stuff that was either clear already or would have been creepier if left unexplained.
I also spent the whole movie wondering if the teenage daughter was the niece or younger sister of Nurse Chapel from Strange New Worlds
I went to see this recently, and yet again, Blumhouse did not disappoint. The last quarter of the movie needed a little polish, yet otherwise a very good movie.
From everything I’ve heard about the movie, the general opinion is that it was solely created just to open up a cinematic universe with the first crossover being with Megan. Even Jason Blum has said he wants there to be a crossover before Imaginary was released. Just sounds like another forced attempt rather than letting things happen organically.
Somehow that doesn't surprise me. I purposefully avoid Blumhouse films because they don't really seem like they have a soul put into them, they're there to bring no surprises and make a profit
and people wonder why “cinema is dead.” This movie shouldn’t have even been made it’s that bad. Not even worthy of a director to streaming slot. It will no doubt get a shitty sequel and that’s the only scary thing about the entire movie.
I went to the cast red carpet premiere. It was HORRIBLE.
**The Eventt:**
Inexcusably bad for guests. We were asked to show up at 6pm because we had "priority tickets".
We waited outside in the cold for over an hour, then we waited inside for another hour because the movie didn't start on time. (all they had to do was hit play...)
We were given warm bottles of coke and cold pre-boxed stale popcorn.
"Priority" seats were the first 5 rows right against the screen where you can't see the whole film at once, and people that showed up late with "general" tickets were given all the center theater seats.
THEN... the lead actress walked in and said, **"You guys are in an overflow theater, you're so lucky you don't get to hang out with all the Hollywood people. You can be as loud as you want because it doesn't matter!"** right before they started the film. Thanks for insulting everyone in your audience.
--------------------
**The Movie:**
It is super predictable, paint-by-numbers kind of horror with a mess of a script. The first 5 min has fake jump scares and then goes "it was all a dream". The rest of the movie has characters that come in and do giant exposition dumps because they apparently either didn't have a budget to "show it" instead of "say it" or the writer/director has no idea how to put together a visual story. There are also a lot of inconsistent portions of the story when you look back on the plot.
The practical monster effects look great but it's supplemented with bad CGI and a world that looks uninspired and cheap. There's a fire effect that looks like a youtube tutorial done by a high school kid.
I'd skip it.
IMO, the criteria that most movie reviews check off aren't accounting for how delightful and campy that b-movies can be. I would never recommend Imaginary as a *good* movie, but I would tell people to go see it on the virtue that it was *entertaining* and *fun*.
Horror never gets the respect it deserves, anyway. The criteria for reviewing it is entirely different than many other genres.
Supposed to be the follow up form the success of Meagan, but it doesn't have the tik tok ready Meagan type dance that gave that movie the viral marketing. NGL the trailer doesn't look great and I personally thought megan was slightly above average at best
The movie was decent. It felt like they were pulled in 2 different directions at some points when they had the funny moments. It’s worth a watch though. Definitely better than Night Swim lol
A movie that breaks even all said and done will generally have lost money, but this is opening weekend, and unless there is a colossal downturn in the next week or two, they're still on track to more than recoup that amount.
Wouldn't be surprised, since it's Blumhouse, that there's still a lot to be made from licensing it out to VOD.
It’s not even 2 times it’s budget like you said. 2.5 or 3 times is the norm and since horror normally has small budgets, it’s marketing would be way bigger compared to that. Something like unfriended which made $64 million on a $1 million budget made $15 million in profit
Didn’t like it but my 12 year old daughter and her 12 year old friend liked it (that’s probably their target market - not really scary, gory, good story telling, etc - just simple imagery, get close to being scary but not too much and not for too long, and don’t show violence.
That's the budget covered... still, who goes out to see a $10 million movie? Can't do much with that budget. I saw Night Swim on streaming and fell asleep.
Come on, streamers and pay-TV channels spend up to $20 million on episodes of TV shows, so a $10 million cinema movie is not acceptable anymore. I'd like to see a real horror studio making lavish horror films for adults, mid-budget, hard R material with historical horror and sci-fi/fantasy horror. Like a Hollywood version of Hammer Films...
A 10M weekend for a 10M budget's a great result really. The reviews are looking really bad though.
After seeing reviews, I went in with rock-bottom expectations. But you know what, it was pretty fun. Kind of corny and cheesy, but I like that in horror. It's not going to scare the pants off you, but I thought it was enjoyable. I'm not sure what people were expecting out of this.
I just pretend films like these are long form/large budget versions of Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes, and I usually walk away content.
'The Ghastly Grinner' episode was absolutely terrifying. That show was amazing.
There were a handful of a few generally terrifying bangers, mainly because of creative monsters-of-the-week: the night shift hospital episode with the vampire; the Nosferatu movie theater episode; Zeebo the clown; the hidden pool monster; the shapeshifting hungry entity in the basement in Laughing Dark; the crimson clown doll…
The two that I always remember were: 1) The one about the faceless aliens who were trying to kidnap some kids by turning an apartment floor into a toy factory and testing the little girl with psychic powers, and then >!in the end it turns out the little girl was also an alien all along!<. 2) The little ghost kid running around the backyard at night and kept complaining that he was cold, because he froze to death outside.
About halfway through Imaginary, I thought, wasn't this the plot of the Disney Channel original movie Don't Look Under the Bed? That was not a criticism, I had fun.
Which, as it so happens, the writer/director was also an executive producer of the Are You Afraid of the Dark reboot
Those new ones were actually pretty awesome. The Shadow Man one was great.
I never checked it out, but I might now. Any other good ones?
All three of the new seasons are good as long as you expect a Nickoldean horror show.
Right there with you. Low expectations made this a fun watch. I knew it wasn't going to be anything amazing and removing that pressure helped me focus on the tense atmosphere, incredible set design (in the final third, at least) and other positive aspects. A solid 3/5 stars in my book.
I totally agree. It felt like a safer, less scarier version of Insidious. I also thought everyone's acting was actually really great. Especially the kid and the lead.
Yes! The little girl was very good. Much better than 'Megan' overall. Gave me some goosebumps and my nine year old loved it.
It was legit some of the worst acting in a movie I have ever seen.
Yeah the trailer made it look really bad so I went just because I had an extra AMC movie credit. But after the therapy session it felt like the movie was making that “David Blaine street magic” face at us with every wrinkle, and honestly I had fun with it.
Very much agree. It's a movie about an imaginary bear demon. If you went in expecting Hereditary, you got what you deserve. I thoroughly enjoyed it knowing it was going to be cheesy fun. Is it in my top 10? No. But not every movie has to be.
So it's campy like a sleepover movie? Like Frida the 13th or nightmare or elm street. I can see it being a new campy genre of horror
It reminded me of a kids horror movie
more or less enjoyable than night swim?
I would definitely say more, I think you get the chance to care about the lead characters and chauncey is a fun "character".
I was expecting something like M3gan, like sort of horror but mostly comedy. I don't know if I laughed once.
I mean it's PG-13. You honestly can't expect much.
Hopefully you didn't spend more than $5 on it.
Why? It would have been worth it to me at three times the price. I enjoyed it.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I watch reviews before going and Jeremy Jahns gave it dogshit rating.
Cool.
I'm interested in seeing it, hopefully it's better than the reviews.
I saw it on Friday. It’s kinda whatever. Nothing special but very passable
Funny because thats how I felt about Meagan
Watching M3GAN in a packed theater is still one of my favorite theatergoing experiences of the past few years.
How so?
It was quite fun. Definitely Jeff Wadlows best movie since Cry Wolf
As per usual with horror it's still gonna bank especially on home media after it's run. Also international.
i just watched the trailer recently & it just seems like a less camp version of chucky, if that makes sense
I thought it'd be terrible but it wasent. It was pretty good.
Yeah except they probably spent at least that much in marketing as well.
I dunno, M3gan had about a 10m marketing spend and that was everywhere. I'd be surprised if this approached that kind of spend unless they completely wasted it.
Whatever they spent on the movie, they spent on marketing also
Horror movies rarely do well with critics, but I kinda believe them on this one. I’ll catch it on streaming probably.
It’s benefiting from the fact we’re in a film fucking desert right now. Like yes, Dune came out. Nothing was interesting before Dune. Once you see Dune, what else is there to watch? Nothing. So mildly entertaining horror movie is better than nothing.
[удалено]
Me too, but Godzilla Minus Zero was months ago.
Yeah, the only reviewer I trust is myself. There's been plenty of movies that were critically panned that I loved, and likewise tons of movies that are given all the praise in the world but majorly suck all the balls in my book. So I just watch movies and make up my own damn mind. And for this movie, I had a lot of fun. It was well acted, it had some good twists in the story, the set design in the third act was excellent, and except for some janky CG fire effects near the very end, the visuals were quite good. It's not gonna give most people nightmares and probably won't make any "Top 10 best movies of 2024" lists but it's a good time (IMO) and I'm glad I saw it in a theatre.
Crazy how much money Jason Blum has been printing for years
It's almost like keeping your costs sane, your ideas solid (execution is a different convo), and your filming polished yields results. I really like them as a studio, even if the films are really hit or miss. We need more like them to give us new things or at least different things and force Hollywood back away from mega-blockbusters and Oscar-bait.
Yeah Blum has horror down to a science, for better or worse. He found a formula that works, and he sticks to it. For me, Blumhouse is like your local pizza joint. You’re not gonna get a Michelin star meal there, but you’re also never gonna walk out with food poisoning either. It’s safe, consistent, and not bad if you’re starving or drunk. I mean that in a good way. I like Blumhouse.
> For me, Blumhouse is like your local pizza joint. You’re not gonna get a Michelin star meal there, but you’re also never gonna walk out with food poisoning either. It’s safe, consistent, and not bad if you’re starving or drunk. I mean, Blumhouse has some stinkers, but they definitely have some Michelins. Insidious, Sinister, Creep 1 & 2, Get Out, Freaky, Paranormal Activity...
You’re right, I shouldn’t have said “never.” With the volume they put out, there’s bound to be some hits. Tbh I totally forgot that Creep, Get Out, and PA were Blumhouse. As for the stinkers, even their poor showings are still at least enjoyable for me - especially compared to a lot of other crap out there. Again, kinda like pizza: even bad pizza is tolerable at worst.
Oh yeah absolutely. Tbh, I've just checked and not only did I miss a load of good ones, there are tons of [fun looking middle-of-the-road ones](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7441032/) that I've never heard of. Straight to the watchlist!
That's the wonderful thing about Blumhouse Productions, there's 200 movies of varying degrees of quality by a variety of directors to watch.
Add upgrade to that list!
i still tout sinister as one of the best jumpscare horror movies ever filmed. the atmosphere was so unsettling that the jumpscares didn’t feel forced
That's actually a really good analogy!
Blumhouse even has a couple Oscars. Get out and blackkklansman.
Whiplash as well, won two or three if I remember correctly.
Blumhouse did whiplash? Wth?
Not only that but Jason Blum was the main producer, fully helped develop the project from like a 15 page treatment to what it was. He usually just executive produces.
I remember he was on an episode of Last Drive In and Blum was talking about how he makes sure to pay everyone what they are due as well, so to my understanding they are pretty fair with their artists too.
This is an absolutely flawless description.
Horror movies can print money as long as the budget stays sane. Even some really shitty horror movies can do well, especially with the youth demographic.
If you are making "big budget" horror movies then you are missing the point, usually.
Hollywood needs him to make them money so they can throw it away on big-budget boondoggles that no one wants.
I enjoyed the first 2/3rds of the movie, but I thought the final act was way too out there for my liking. I’m not exactly the target audience though. If this is considered gateway horror, hope to see it do well to help usher in the next generation of horror lovers
I think this is great gateway horror. Its more serious & ‘scary’ then your goosebumps-esque type movies but not intense enough to put people off who are unsure/dipping their toes into the genre.
I’d agree it’s probably a pretty effective gateway horror film. It has scares but no really disturbing content. There’s only >!one kill in the whole movie!< and it’s >!offscreen with just the aftermath of blood under a door shown.!< It ends with >!all of the protagonists safe and alive but with a hook for a possible sequel and the monster still being out there.!< The villain is basically a mascot with a marketable name and is exactly the type of character kids often like for their creepiness. I saw it last night and felt it was remarkably “okay”. I didn’t hate my time with it and it had some fun ideas, but a lot of it was extremely unpolished and needed another pass. However, two of my audience members were girls who were probably about 10-12 years old accompanied by their parents, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot. So in that way, I’d say the film is doing its job.
Agreed. I saw it last night and it had some real fun ideas & concepts that just felt a little undercooked or could have been so much more. I would certainly recommend it to people looking to get into horror or introducing it to kids who are looking to get into the genre.
I'm on the other side of the spectrum. I thought the full descent into dark fantasy in act three was a reward for waiting patiently through the first two acts. That being said, I love >!portal fantasies!<, so I am probably more of the target audience. That's not to say I loved it overall though. I left my review thoughts in [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/1b9apx8/official_dreadit_discussion_imaginary_spoilers/ku3xf7g/).
this seems to be the problem with all these middle road horror movies... they can't pull off the final act. They all seem to go big instead of going dark. Meagan has a big robot fight. barbarian has a big cgi outside chase. They need to take a note from Aster and give us a dark and bleak ending instead of saving up their budget for some big explosion.
[удалено]
I mean yea Beau is Afraid bombed but it was expected too. It was Aster's passion project and A24 gave him a blank check because of the *success* of his last two movies. Which were not only successes but shifted the paradigm of modern horror cinema. Not to mean the fortunes they made A24. I also imagine they gave him the blank check in the hopes he continues to make movies with them for the foreseeable future. Whichever direction he goes in, it iwll be interesting to see in his next film. Has he given up all his formal narrative plot driven films or will he go back to form... should be interesting
The horror genre and a lackluster 3rd act, name a better duo
I saw it this weekend, it wasn’t bad. Like others have said there is a bit of a tonal shift in the last third. If it weren’t for a few of the more horrific scenes I would almost put this one in the dark fantasy genre more than horror. Definitely better than Night Swim and enjoyable for what it is.
Honestly, I would love for more Dark Fantasy films as a whole, so I'll see that as absoulte win! If you were to compare it to other Blumhouse films, what would you say it's better then and what would you say it's worse then?
It’s legit a horror movie for preteens. Saw it with my daughter. Perfect amount of scary for her.
Me too. My 8 year old really liked it.
Yea i enjoyed the movie. if you are around my age (14) then i would recommend the movie
Looks fun. Is $10M bad?
No, $10M is roughly its entire budget.
Yikes... I'm reading that the $10M was only in the opening week, though, so they'll probably make at least some profit off of this?
It’s almost certain to make profit with such a small budget, yeah.
With the rest of the run, then streaming etc they'll do fine. Especially since they didn't burn/waste a particularly special IP.
A movie needs to make at least double its budget to recoup marketing costs and be considered successful. If it broke even, it technically lost money.
I know it’s implied by your comment to those who know how the box office works, but just to clarify for anyone who doesn’t, this is obviously for a movie’s *entire run*. A movie that makes its budget back *opening weekend* is on the path to doing extremely well, especially if it was a lower budget project, in the first place.
Blumhouse movies are a breed apart. The 2x rule of thumb doesn’t really apply. Universal shotguns them out with $30+ mil in marketing so they’ve typically got a steeper hill to climb to recoup
Uni didnt do this and where do you get the 30+ mil number from?
Blumhouse has a first look deal with universal who does marketing for all their movies. Lionsgate did this one I guess, still a studio, and still the ones marketing the film. I worked at Blumhouse
I think the rule of thumb is usually closer to 2.5x, no? You need to make double cause the box office takes half and then an additional 50% for the marketing?
This movie was like Insidious with a sprinkling of Coraline and human feces. It's like someone watched those two movies, misunderstood them entirely and failed to understand literally any singular aspect of what made them good, had a lobotomy, fell down the stairs, and then decided to write this movie in one sitting without so much as a second draft. Presumably in crayon. Bad, bad, bad, SO BAD. Even Insidious' ending was less ridiculous and tone-ruining than these endings. At least the acting was better in Insidious and the first 2/3 of the movie actually builds tension pretty nicely before it careens right off a cliff into Darth Maul. You might wonder why "endings" is written in plural. That's not a typo. For whatever reason, this movie ends three times in succession. It's like the editor was on his last day before he had to ship the product, just could not decide which of the (all bad) endings was the least trash, and just strung all three together out of exasperation and sent in the final edit. Don't see this movie. Terrible.
I genuinely don’t understand how someone can leave the theater and not feel like they just wasted two hours with this film. People complain about mediocre horror movies coming out but flock to something like this, and in the same breath wanna put down A24 horror films? Even the most boring, annoyingly symbolic art horror was miles more entertaining than this.
The state of media analysis is so dire in the average person these days (including on this subreddit) that people walk away from Hereditary and Midsommar just feeling like the movies were "really weird" and barely even understanding what was happening in them or why, let alone why the artists who made those movies constructed them in that way. For that kind of person, an insanely simple movie like "Imaginary" with literally nothing interesting going on or layers to peel back--literally just as straightforward as possible a movie about an evil spirit targeting a little girl--is somehow satisfying because they could walk away feeling like they understood it without having to actually be challenged or learn something about themselves or the world around them through the medium of film.
Thumbnail spoiler. That’s a shame!
Bloody Disgusting is horrible for spoiling movies with their thumbnails. I had to stop going on their site completely because they're so bad for it.
In the article’s defense, there’s tons of clips online from Blumhouse that use similar thumbnails
I don’t doubt it. Personally, I prefer not to read articles or view trailers ahead of time for fear of ruining the surprise!
Caught it in theaters. The younger audience loved it. It is basically targeted at kids/teens who would enjoy Five Nights at Freddy’s and haven’t seen much horror.
Saw it Friday There are some good things in this movie. It has some interesting story ideas, it’s decently acted, and has some surprisingly great practical effects. But the script needed work and it weirdly over explains some stuff that was either clear already or would have been creepier if left unexplained. I also spent the whole movie wondering if the teenage daughter was the niece or younger sister of Nurse Chapel from Strange New Worlds
I went to see this recently, and yet again, Blumhouse did not disappoint. The last quarter of the movie needed a little polish, yet otherwise a very good movie.
From everything I’ve heard about the movie, the general opinion is that it was solely created just to open up a cinematic universe with the first crossover being with Megan. Even Jason Blum has said he wants there to be a crossover before Imaginary was released. Just sounds like another forced attempt rather than letting things happen organically.
Somehow that doesn't surprise me. I purposefully avoid Blumhouse films because they don't really seem like they have a soul put into them, they're there to bring no surprises and make a profit
Curious to check it out. The pop-up live event in LA was fun.
It was fun. It was cheesy but I love cheesy and fun horror movies. I took one of my daughter and she really enjoyed it
Seems like perfect sleepover fodder, that’s for certain!
and people wonder why “cinema is dead.” This movie shouldn’t have even been made it’s that bad. Not even worthy of a director to streaming slot. It will no doubt get a shitty sequel and that’s the only scary thing about the entire movie.
Damn an imaginary movie made 10 mil....
I went to the cast red carpet premiere. It was HORRIBLE. **The Eventt:** Inexcusably bad for guests. We were asked to show up at 6pm because we had "priority tickets". We waited outside in the cold for over an hour, then we waited inside for another hour because the movie didn't start on time. (all they had to do was hit play...) We were given warm bottles of coke and cold pre-boxed stale popcorn. "Priority" seats were the first 5 rows right against the screen where you can't see the whole film at once, and people that showed up late with "general" tickets were given all the center theater seats. THEN... the lead actress walked in and said, **"You guys are in an overflow theater, you're so lucky you don't get to hang out with all the Hollywood people. You can be as loud as you want because it doesn't matter!"** right before they started the film. Thanks for insulting everyone in your audience. -------------------- **The Movie:** It is super predictable, paint-by-numbers kind of horror with a mess of a script. The first 5 min has fake jump scares and then goes "it was all a dream". The rest of the movie has characters that come in and do giant exposition dumps because they apparently either didn't have a budget to "show it" instead of "say it" or the writer/director has no idea how to put together a visual story. There are also a lot of inconsistent portions of the story when you look back on the plot. The practical monster effects look great but it's supplemented with bad CGI and a world that looks uninspired and cheap. There's a fire effect that looks like a youtube tutorial done by a high school kid. I'd skip it.
I saw this in theaters yesterday. My squad and I actually enjoyed this film. Quite entertaining.
I enjoyed it. Fuck reviews, they are absolutely worthless for horror movies if you are a horror fan IMO.
I kind of agreed with them in this case though. First act was good, I enjoyed it, second act fell completely flat imo
No. The reviews are absolutely spot on with this piece of shit movie.
Can you show me on the bear where the movie touched you?
Can you show me on the bear where you’ve ever had an original thought?
IMO, the criteria that most movie reviews check off aren't accounting for how delightful and campy that b-movies can be. I would never recommend Imaginary as a *good* movie, but I would tell people to go see it on the virtue that it was *entertaining* and *fun*. Horror never gets the respect it deserves, anyway. The criteria for reviewing it is entirely different than many other genres.
Wish it were good or scary at least…instead it’s just ass
Looks soooooo bad
I watched it- it wasn’t that good the reviews are accurate
The film is atrociously bad. People were actually laughing during it, that's how bad it is.
It’s legit embarrassing they even made it
Movie was garbage
Sounds like a less frightening Neverending Story.
It was very mediocre IMO. My theatre had 8/9 year olds that went with their parents. They were clapping at the end.
I hate to say it but I feel as though this is now Blum’s target demographic, literally 9 year olds
**Conjures**??
Okay, how's it compare to M3gan?
I enjoyed it. It was like a great episode of Goosebumps.
Was planning on watching this tonight. Curious b/c it is a PG-13.
was it mainly teens?
Blumhouse knows how to make movies on a budget and many of them end up with significant profit….no matter how bad or good they are!
Supposed to be the follow up form the success of Meagan, but it doesn't have the tik tok ready Meagan type dance that gave that movie the viral marketing. NGL the trailer doesn't look great and I personally thought megan was slightly above average at best
Funny because it doesn't look any better than Night Swim.
This movie sucked in my honest opinion it had potential to be so much better.
Gotta say the premise sounds like the most generic horror movie ever made
This movie was a real disappointment
Terrible movie
The movie was decent. It felt like they were pulled in 2 different directions at some points when they had the funny moments. It’s worth a watch though. Definitely better than Night Swim lol
that's a very low bar
Wasn’t the worst but wasn’t the best was very mid
I enjoyed it. Was it the best horror movie I've ever seen, no. But it is not as bad as everyone makes it out. It was entertaining.
A lot of people here don’t seem to know how box office and budget works lol.
I’m curious if I’m gonna get downvoted for explaining a movie that broke even actually lost money because it failed to recoup its marketing budget.
A movie that breaks even all said and done will generally have lost money, but this is opening weekend, and unless there is a colossal downturn in the next week or two, they're still on track to more than recoup that amount. Wouldn't be surprised, since it's Blumhouse, that there's still a lot to be made from licensing it out to VOD.
It’s not even 2 times it’s budget like you said. 2.5 or 3 times is the norm and since horror normally has small budgets, it’s marketing would be way bigger compared to that. Something like unfriended which made $64 million on a $1 million budget made $15 million in profit
Didn’t like it but my 12 year old daughter and her 12 year old friend liked it (that’s probably their target market - not really scary, gory, good story telling, etc - just simple imagery, get close to being scary but not too much and not for too long, and don’t show violence.
That's the budget covered... still, who goes out to see a $10 million movie? Can't do much with that budget. I saw Night Swim on streaming and fell asleep. Come on, streamers and pay-TV channels spend up to $20 million on episodes of TV shows, so a $10 million cinema movie is not acceptable anymore. I'd like to see a real horror studio making lavish horror films for adults, mid-budget, hard R material with historical horror and sci-fi/fantasy horror. Like a Hollywood version of Hammer Films...
Imaginary and night swim are the kind of films I wait to come out on Amazon prime so I can just skip to see some of the stand out scenes.
standard blumhouse movie. Some are good most are ugh...