Sketch

Currently Only in Theaters

Runtime: 1 Hours 32 Minutes

Rated PG

“Life is all about balancing the good and the bad; if you don’t carry the good with you, it just makes the bad stronger.”

After the passing of their mother, the Wyatt children (Jack and Amber) and their father (Taylor) are trying to process their grief. After it is discovered that Amber is drawing dark and disturbing images in a notebook, the school counselor encourages her to draw what she is feeling (mostly anger), but not to act on those dark feelings. A little bit of harmless art therapy, right? After creating a notebook full of crazy, killer monsters Amber and Jack accidentally drop her notebook into a mysterious, magical pond, which brings her sketches to life. Amber and Jack, along with a school bully, must figure out how to stop all the monsters before they hurt people and they might possibly learn a thing or two about loss and grieving along the way.

Themes:

Drawing, family, art, feelings, trauma, what to do with big emotions, single parenting, choices, anger, art therapy, validation, putting others first, loss, outbox vs. inbox, selling a home, covenants, balance, not believing your child, proof, working through hard situations, grief, pain, healthy vs unhealthy processing of emotions, coping, helping ourselves before trying to help others, maternal orphans, and how we can’t control external forces, but can control how we react to them.

Language:

A*s - 2 B*stard - 2 (used in the context of fatherless children for humor) Hell - 6 Religious Exclamations - 4

The word b-hole is said at least four times. Multiple characters say, “what the…” and one character almost says sh*t, but the scene changes.

Stuff to be aware of:

Scary - There are multiple scenes with monster noises, but monsters cannot be seen. Many of the sketched monsters could be frightening due to their looks, behavior, or the fact that they are trying to hurt people (Yes, even some of the cute ones). One main sketched monster is meant to be scarier/creepier than the others. She wears a hood and, during the first half of the movie, moves in shadows and mist. She is later seen in sweats by the magical pond, sketching monsters and bringing them to life. Once her face is seen she runs on all fours and makes a sharp point come out of her sleeve to stab people. Her face is similar to a dark, twisted version of Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I mention more about her in the “Seeing it With Your Family” section below. Many of the monsters are seen in the trailer, but become scarier when they chase and attack people. During the climax there are multiple bad monsters that look like scribble lines in the shape of snakes and humans with scorpion tails.

The music and even the film’s title sequence have a sense of foreboding. There are a few scenes that were made scarier than they were because of the music and sound effects. The composer and sound effects people did their jobs.

Sexual - There are multiple references to people drawing “butts.” The drawings are usually changed, but you can still make out a doodled butt. A mother says, “butts are awesome.” A boy character is accused of “liking” a girl character because he is mean to her. Later, he asks her to be his boyfriend and is quickly turned down, but he seems okay with this. There is a brief scene of a shirtless little boy in the bathroom.

A kid mentions that they need to take an unconscious adult’s vitals. When questioned about what vitals are, one character says that vitals are “only what boys have.”

Violence/Gore - A little boy falls and cuts his hand pretty badly. He picks a piece of grass out of the cut. There is a bus crash, and a woman gets knocked unconscious, but is alive. Multiple hand-drawn monsters are killed. If they get smashed, they become a chalk-like substance. One particularly scary one gets attacked by fire and begins to melt, and she starts dripping melted crayon substance on a character’s face that she has pinned down. Warm, melted crayon gushes unto the human character’s face.

Multiple times, there are scenes that look like blood or gore, but it is just crayon markings or red chalk dust.

Other - There are multiple sketches in the girl’s notebook that would be considered “disturbing.” One has a boy being chopped in half by a monster with lots of blood. Others have monsters killing people and one puking up blood. The girl that draws the sketches is asked if she actually wants bad things to happen to the person in her artwork. She says “yes.”

Overall:

Seeing It With Your Family

I will mention two things parents should know before watching this moive.

First, this is an Angel Studios, but it had multiple curse words in it. I was a bit shocked by this. This is the first Angel Studios production that I have seen with curse words in it.

Second, if you watched the trailers for this movie, it gives one the sense that it might be an intense ride, but not necessarily scary. That is false advertising. This movie feels like gateway horror, kind of like Goosebumps. The scariest monster that I mentioned in the “scary” section above is very intense. She runs on all fours very fast, moves in creepy ways, just pops up in places unexpectedly, and tries to stab people with a long spike she has as a hand. Some elementary school-aged children might be able to handle it, but if your child scares easily, I would consider watching this one first before deciding to let your child watch it. Her face is mostly dark crayon, but she has darker areas for eyes.

This movie borders on gateway horror and cute fantasy. It feels like a way more intense version of Harold and the Purple Crayon mixed with a children’s Pet Cemetery. It feels like a cautionary fairy tale from the Grimm brothers that reminds us grief can get very dark, but we must also seek out the light.

What I Thought

This ended up not being as family-friendly as I thought it would be, but I loved it. The writer empathetically and intelligently shows us through meaningful scenes and short dialogue how this father and his two children are dealing with the death of their wife and mother. The contrast in the film is amazing to watch unfold as Amber deals with her grief in a productive way, by doodling dark pictures that are meant not to be seen or happen in the real world. On the flip side, her brother and father are stuffing their emotions because they believe they are responsible for helping Amber cope and not to “go down a bad road.” The father’s daze, Jack’s heroism instead of healing, and Amber’s descent into darkness are all ways to deal with trauma, but through the course of the film, they grow. Taylor and Jack learn they must help themselves before helping others, and Amber learns that you can draw the dark emotions, but you also have to let light in so you aren’t consumed by the darkness. The film feels therapeutic and reminds us of the power there is in art. In this case, it is a magic force that can transform someone from the inside out.

Oh, yeah, and it is a ton of fun. This movie borders on gateway horror and cute fantasy. It feels like a way more intense version of Harold and the Purple Crayon mixed with a children’s version of Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery. It plays out like a cautionary fairy tale from the Grimm brothers that reminds us grief can be very dark, but we must also seek out the light. It does this in very creative and artistic ways. There are jump scares, creepy scenes, but also heartfelt emotions and humor. Even when humor creeps in during heavy scenes laden with emotions it feels right and welcoming. As if we can get the moment’s awkwardness and characters lighting the mood because they don’t know what else to do.

The acting is great, even the kids in the movie. Tony Hale and D’Arcy Carden have good chemistry and pull off a brother sister duo well as they banter and as they work together to help pull the family through the climax. I haven’t seen Hale in a more serious role in which he isn’t playing an idiot, like in Arrested Development. He does a great job as a grieving father trying to be what his children need him to be instead of allowing himself to move through the stages of grief.

This was one of the most creative movies I have seen in years. I can’t wait to watch it again to catch things I didn’t see the first time. There are theological and psychological discussions that can be had from viewing this film, so I am looking forward to discussing it with others.

See it, but watch it before letting your kids see it.