Alice (Pyper Braun) with ‘cuddly’ Chauncey. Below: DeWanda Wise as Alice’s stepmother, Jessica
GETTY, LIONSGATE
The killer-doll subgenre is one of grand horror tradition, extending back to 1945’s Dead of Night, and taking in subsequent icons Chucky, Annabelle and M3gan. The killer teddy bear, however, has yet to break out of the toybox in the same way. Enter Chauncey – the cuddly monster of Blumhouse’s Imaginary. The childhood chum of Jessica (DeWanda Wise, also executive producer), Chauncey isn’t too happy at being abandoned when she leaves her family home. And he’s still there when she returns, years later, with her own family, including stepdaughter Alice (Pyper Braun), who he quickly latches onto.
This is director Jeff Wadlow’s third Blumhouse collaboration. Where previous films Truth or Dare and Fantasy Island broke the mold somewhat, Imaginary finds the studio in more familiar territory. ‘This is my attempt at making the most classically Blumhouse movie – in that it is about a family in a home,’ he tells Teasers.