Z (2020)-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

Plot Summary: When Beth's son Josh creates an imaginary friend called Z, Beth must pry him away from the dangers Z brings upon the family.

Imaginary friends, no one takes them seriously.

The kids make up a ridiculous, funny creature in their mind when they are lonely and are learning to form friendships. As soon as they make some decent friends, out these imaginary friends go.

The parents hardly care about imaginary friends because they know it’s just a phase the kid is going through. They will play along with every single thing their kid says about their friend. Oh, the friend wants a plate of their own, sure. The imaginary friend has a dumb name, ok. As long as their kid doesn’t publicly state they have an imaginary friend with that stupid name, who cares right? In a couple of years, they will all forget that little creature that needs someone to believe in it, ever existed.

But what about that creature? As soon as it is birthed, does it go completely depend on its creator or can it sustain on its own?

If it can imagine the depressing life it must lead, knowing that no one wants it anymore.

Z is the name of the imaginary friend in this horror movie. It makes you question everything you’ve heard about imaginary friends. If you had one, you know first hand.

An imaginary friend is created, the kid plays with it for a while, the parents think their kid is cute and creative for making an imaginary friend. Things happen, kids grow up, the imaginary friend is perhaps not entirely forgotten. Perhaps it hides in the corner of the subconscious mind. That part of the mind probably gives it some power to exist.

It also probably picked on the part of the brain that tells you not to do certain things as it is morally wrong. That imaginary friend has now become a part of you that amplifies the evil, kind of like Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Soon it gains too much power over the brain to be able to control you. You begin to fear what you have created.

This is pretty much the only explanation I could come up with about Z because what doesn’t make sense is how this imaginary friend was able to control and becomes possessive of its creator.

Z Movie Plot 

We are introduced to a family living in a large house. Beth and Kevin are a loving couple and have a son called Josh who seems to have trouble making friends.

One night, the parents are cuddling and watching TV when they hear noises. Beth checks upstairs to find her son talking to someone while playing with his action figures and cars. She thinks he has an imaginary friend and tells this to her husband. They think it’s so cute.

At school, however, the teacher seems concerned with whatever Josh is scribbling on his paper.

The only person that doesn’t mind going to school with Josh is Daniel and that you because Beth is friends with Georgia.

The next day, however, Kevin is tasked with dropping Josh to school because Daniel isn’t coming.

Beth starts to have second thoughts about her son’s imaginary friend as he wants a place on the table set for him, wants his bedroom door closed, and has named him Z.

Beth starts to get a little disturbed watching her son obsess over Z and freaks herself out in the process when she sees a toy train glowing in the dark and imagines it to be a creature’s eyes.

Soon Josh’s teacher calls her to school and informs her that her son is indefinitely suspended. He’s been acting out at school and hitting his classmates. Turns out Kevin knew about his son acting out because a red note was sent out every time which he signed but didn’t tell his wife.

Kids will be kids, is what he says when Beth confronts him. Josh is stuck at home and he’s the only one happy about it. He gets to go to the play zone instead of school.

However, when he’s going through a tunnel, Beth sees someone crawling behind him and gets spooked.

She tells Kevin she saw Z but he tells her she has an active imagination as he too is felt someone watching him but it was only his jacket.

The parents take Josh to Beth’s family psychiatrist Dr Seager who tells Beth it is normal for his son to act out and he seems like any regular kid, but she could put him on medication if she wants to which Kevin replies with a no.

As Josh runs out, he calls out to his friend Z and Dr Seager is puzzled. He doesn’t call Beth right away but waits till more incidents have transpired before he reveals the truth to Beth. He could have called that very evening and told Beth, but then Josh wouldn’t have drawn a creepy portrait of Z, nor would he have thrown Daniel off the staircase.

In between all this, Beth’s mother is dying, her sister Jenna is too selfish to come to regular visits and Beth keeps remembering her father hanging himself.

So, of course, Josh does all those things, and Beth decides he must be medicated once Daniel is thrown off the staircase.

He begins to behave normally after his milk is regularly drugged. But one morning has a fever and throws up all over his hotdog and baby carrots. Kevin finds out Beth was drugging him and believes it was a side effect. Beth reminds him she hid the medication from him as revenge for hiding the red notes from school.

Beth’s mother passes away and she has to clear out her childhood home with the help of Jenna. She finds a toy that is used to play alphabets and a videotape as well. The alphabet toy doesn’t work but Beth still takes it for fun.

She goes home to watch the videotape and sees her kid self calling out to Z. Beth rewinds the scene several times before burning the videotape.

At night, the alphabet toy begins to play Z over and over and when Beth approaches it, lights up more letters which she quickly notes down.

She believes the anagram to be IMAGINE Z. So she draws up a bath, lights several candles, and settles down to imagine. Without the candles, she would be unable to relax and concentrate.

She keeps saying Imagine Z, and he suddenly appears in her bath, looking like an extended version of Gollum. She screams and is consoled by Kevin.

Soon after, she is called by Dr Seager who decides it is time to tell Beth that Z was actually her imaginary best friend and she had shown the same bratty tendencies. He shows her a tape where she promises to be with Z forever. Beth immediately leaves and calls Kevin who is investigating a noise he heard in the house.

He is attacked by Z who pops out at him. As soon as Beth arrives, she finds the house on fire. She rushes in and Kevin is thrown off the staircase, Z’s favourite mode of killing people.

She finds Josh standing in terror but before she can reach him, he’s pulled away inside a room and the door is locked.

Beth promises to do whatever he says if he lets Josh go. The door opens and Beth walks out with her son.

The next day, Jenna is complaining about having to babysit Josh even though she knows her sister has just lost her husband.

Beth hands her some money to shut up and clean herself up.

She goes into her childhood home and is made to wear a frock. She cooks for Z, sleeps in the same bed as him and plays games. But that isn’t enough for Z. He hangs Beth’s mother’s wedding dress. Beth dresses herself in it and arrives downstairs just as a priest on TV is calling out that the couple is now husband and wife.

Z Ending Explained with Spoilers! 

Z still wants to play games and they play the Floor is Lava game. Beth pulls out a cushion and calls her sister who is still complaining about leaving Josh with her. Josh is fine, she claims.

Beth turns around and sees Z has come downstairs by throwing a cushion in the path and has left the house. Beth frantically tells Jenna to protect Josh but she’s hardly bothered. Then she is bothered when she sees Josh is no longer there.

Josh had been angry with Beth for stealing his only friend in the whole world, so probably went with Z as soon as he told him to. Jenna searches everywhere for Josh and finds him near the train tracks.

At the same time, Dr Seager has arrived, again at the last moment to rescue Beth who refuses to open the door even as the cops beat down at her door.

He tells her she’s created him and can destroy him. Jenna on the phone has made it clear she’s a terrible babysitter and Josh an idiot who should know better than to play in the middle of the tracks. It’s not even like Z is holding him down. Josh decides on his own to sit and play trains on a real track.

The cops break down the door and rush upstairs to find Beth hanging from the ceiling. The phone next to her is still going on. Jenna tells her Josh is safe.

In the next scene, Jenna is tasked with feeding Beth as she is in a shocked state. She also has to cook dinner and take care of Josh. Jenna, the woman who was always running away from responsibilities is now rewarded with too many responsibilities.

At night, Josh wishes everyone good night in the dark, even those who are no longer with him like his father and hamster. Then he wishes Z a good night.

Since Josh wishes the living and dead good night, it remains to be seen whether Z is still there because of Beth, or destroyed because Beth is incapable of imagination now and has successfully destroyed him in the process.

The movie had some interesting parts and the first half is especially fast-paced as the story is built up. In the second half, however, the story dwindles, trying to figure out how to end.

They never explain how Z was powerful enough to come out of Beth’s imagination and seep into Beth’s son. We must draw our own conclusions and wonder if when Josh was in the womb, was he fed her imagination as well as food?

It’s a decent thriller at best, and the horror scenes are just okay. Z is comical to look at you wonder how this being isn’t laughed at. How did Beth keep a straight face and was terrified of him when he looked so absurd?

Scare scale: 

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