9 Totally Nightmarish Imaginary Friends

dismiss Dead Fredwas release in May of 1991 , meaning it ’s now been shorthand for “ imaginary ally out of control ” for three decades . While not all imaginary friends in movies and TV are evil , a fair number of them ( let in these nine , who range from pesky to psychotic ) do take reward of their positions to make things as creepy-crawly and helter-skelter as possible .

9) Drop Dead Fred, Drop Dead Fred

As mentioned above , Drop Dead Fred celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year , but its narration remains surprisingly timeless . After she ’s jilt by her hubby , gets dismiss from her court - newsperson chore , and has her car and handbag stolen all in the same day , Elizabeth ( Phoebe Cates ) reluctantly locomote back in with her master mother . That series of circumstances that leads to her reconnecting with her long - lost fanciful friend , Drop Dead Fred ( Rik Mayall ) , who only she can see and whose stigma of brutal mischief disrupts Elizabeth ’s unfirm life even more .

Not only does he joyfully junk Elizabeth ’s childhood home , he sinks her best friend ’s houseboat ( Carrie Fisher forever ) and have all manner of havoc as Elizabeth tries to reconnect with her chouse ex . In the end , Fred helps Elizabeth move on from the toxic relationship in her life , including the one they divvy up — but it takes a hell of a mint of cringe - worthy , spaghetti - flinging , mud Proto-Indo European - eating , fiddle - smash naughtiness to get to that point .

8) Adolf, Jojo Rabbit

You already bang that in this one , the kid ’s imaginary friend is a somewhat whacky edition of Adolf Hitler . Yeah , he ’s played bythe endearingly faze Taika Waititi(who take and also won an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation ) , but still … Hitler .

7) Z, Z

Inthis hair-raiser , a untested female parent named Beth ( Keegan Connor Tracy ) becomes overwhelmed when her formerly mild - mannered son starts acting out with increasing violence — and blaming all his misdeeds on “ Z , ” his brand - young fanciful friend . But it soon becomes absolved that Z is no stranger to the family , and that he ’s a more genitive , far more sadistic edition of a typical imaginary ally — someone who ’s ab initio press to provide fellowship to a lonely child but winds up obtain room too tie . Z gets dark as hell before it ends , and it ’s in the end a cautionary tale against letting one ’s mental imagery go too uncivilized .

6) Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Fight Club ’s not really a music genre picture except for the fact that , well , one of the principal characters is a complete figment of the other main case ’s very troubled subconscious . David Fincher ’s fashionable version of Chuck Palahniuk ’s exploration of masculinity , consumerism , self - assistant movements , and violence became a rage classic and remains influential in and out of genre spaces today , and it ’s still one of those movies you should learn more than once to fit all of its puzzle musical composition together . Like Drop Dead Fred , Tyler Durden ( Brad Pitt ) in the end helps the pent-up narrator ( Edward Norton ) realise his reliable ego … a liberating ( albeit super bruise - hasten ) thing , right up until the moment he / they start blow up edifice .

5) Tomás, The Orphanage

Does it weigh if your fanciful friend — say , a piddling child you meet after your parent move into a crumbling construction that once function as an orphans' asylum and has an ominous past — is actually a wraith ? What if your fanciful friend looks just like a boy your own age , except for that creepy maskhe never carry off ? Gon na generously say yes , that counts — and that proceed for all the other ghostly buddies that appear only to one character and have a malign and/or just alarming affect on the proceedings ; see also Dark Water , The Haunting in Connecticut 2 : Ghosts of Georgia , The Amityville Horror , The polishing , etc .

4) Daniel, Daniel Isn’t Real

He may not be real , but Daniel ( Patrick Schwarzenegger ) , pal to the traumatized Luke ( Miles Robbins ) , get unsafe mayhem both when he ’s a kid and whenhe reappearance to Miles ’ lifeto “ serve ” him as an grownup . finally Daniel Is n’t Real introduces the idea that Daniel is really more of a malevolent supernatural bearing that ’s dip its hooks into Miles , occupy the fanciful friend plot to a conclusion that ’s both more mysterious and tragic than you ’d usually expect .

3) Mr. Robot, Mr. Robot

There ’s form of a Fight Club situation going on here , in that the fanciful admirer ( Christian Slater ) that appears to Elliot ( Rami Malek ) is actually a manifestation of his own mind who even aim over his body from time to time . But in this guinea pig , Mr. Robot is n’t a Tyler Durden - case unknown who burst into Elliot ’s life with extremist , overthrow - the - world data processor - hack plots ; it ’s Elliot ’s own father , who died year before but whose influence has yet to release its hold on his Word ’s progressively foggy brainiac .

2) Frank, Donnie Darko

A terrifying coney creature who gets right down to stage business with a Last Day prophecy for the titular agonist ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) , Frank ( James Duval ) is either a waking nightmare , or a hallucination , or more probable both . He ’s a bad influence on Donnie , sorta — while he encourages the stripling to do things like axe - chopper a water main at his school and torch the home of a local motivational loudspeaker , the latter act exhibit the human ’s private child - pornography addiction . Frank also pushes Donnie toward investigating metre travelling , which sets the film ’s key secret plan wrench in motion . Still , every metre Frank pops up , things get downright eerie — and that end - of - the - man prevision sour out very bad for Donnie in the end .

1) Pretzel Jack, Channel Zero

Yet another childhood fellow who of a sudden reappears when adult life gets rough , Pretzel Jack — play to eerie , bendy perfection bycontortionist Troy Jameson season four of Channel Zero , The Dream Door — call back he ’s protect Jillian ( Maria Sten ) by cheerfully slaughtering anyone who makes her wild . While she shinny to control this most undesirable gift , things take an even scarier turn when she realizes she ’s not the only one with an “ imaginary ” bodyguard . Even worse , Pretzel Jack is really one of the patrician examples of his kind , and things only get weirder and gorier from there .

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