Blumhouse introduces us to Chauncey in official trailer for IMAGINARY

Small children often have harmless imaginary friends, right? Well, what if those friends seem harmless...and aren't really so imaginary after all? That's the premise of Blumhouse's upcoming horror film IMAGINARY.

IMAGINARY - Courtesy Blumhouse
IMAGINARY - Courtesy Blumhouse /
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Last year, Blumhouse introduced us to a freaky animatronic doll named M3GAN, and it was one of the most popular horror movies of 2023. M3GAN was a viral sensation even before the film released, thanks to the eye-catching videos and trailer, the twitter account and the hordes of dancers dressed like the doll. The horde of M3GANs even made appearances at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights in 2023.

Now we are getting another story of a toy gone wrong in Blumhouse’s latest horror flick IMAGINARY. When Jessica (DeWanda Wise, Jurassic World Dominion) and her family make the decision to move into her childhood home, it seems like a good idea; after all, she has fond memories of growing up there. But everything changes when little Alice (Pyper Braun) finds a stuffed bear in the basement.

Sure, Chauncy looks all cute and fluffy, but if you watch the trailer (below), you can see that Chauncey is not all sunshine and stuffing. Alice writes up a checklist that Chauncey has put together, promising that if she finishes the list, she can travel with him to the place he is from. It’s a sort of scavenger hunt, requiring her to collect something happy, do something that scares her, and so on. Harmless enough, but one of the items on said list is to “something that hurts.” Seems like cute lil’ Chauncey has a mean streak.

As Alice’s attempts to win Chauncey’s friendship become more intense, Jessica has to take drastic measures to save the little girl. It also seems like Jessica herself may have thought of Chancey as a friend when she was a child. Did she forget about it? And how did that all end?

IMAGINARY
DeWanda Wise as Jessica in IMAGINARY. Photo Credit: Parrish Lewis /

Betty Buckley plays a character named Gloria, and she tells Jessica that there are entities that invade the lives of children. Every culture has a different name for them, but we know them as “imaginary friends.”

"“I love making films that play with the audience’s perception of what is real and what is not, so a horror movie that explores the frightening possibilities of imaginary friends was the perfect sandbox for me to play in.”

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Writer/Director/Producer Jeff Wadlow

IMAGINARY opens in theaters March 8.