Sketch

I'm going to immediately preface this movie review right now and advise that you don't take children under 12 to see Sketch. While it does have some impressive CGI visuals, the scary elements overpower the film more than I had expected compared to what the trailers showed. The designs of the creatures in the movie are nightmarish for younger audiences, and the PG-rating seems wildly inaccurate here.

I was able to watch Sketch thanks to a mystery movie Monday program from my local theater, and I was intrigued with recent marketing. Angel Studios is focused on faith-based films, and it has some great family movies under its belt, most notably a great Gospel retelling with The King of Kings that was out last Easter. I had assumed that Sketch was in the same vein as this, with a few frightening elements peppered in to consider older preteen audiences. However, as the film went on, it was apparent that this is too intense for general families.

Sketch follows Amber Wyatt as she tries to process the death of her mother. Her father Taylor and her brother Jack try to cheer her up, but she shuts down and keeps to her artistic pursuits. After getting a notebook from a school faculty member to jot down her ideas, she becomes invested in scribbling her drawings into a personal journal. Taylor's sister Liz tries to sell the family house as Taylor struggles to move on from past tragedy.

This goes well until Jack comes across a magic pond that allows him to bring back items to life. Thinking he can bring his mother back, he and Amber head to the pond and accidentally drop Amber's notebook, which causes her drawings to come to life. This wouldn't be an issue for most, but when her drawings include a variety of bloodthirsty monsters set to terrorize the town, that could be a problem. It's up to the Wyatt family (and school bully Bowman) to find a way to destroy these imaginative creatures once and for all.

For what it's worth, Sketch is visually impressive when it comes to the monster designs. The VFX work is pretty to look at, and some designs are very terrifying. Special note goes to the "eyeders", tiny spiders with one singular eye that will cause those with arachnophobia to be very uncomfortable. D'arcy Carden's deadpan delivery works well when reacting to the strange world unfolding, and the actor who plays Jack does a great job with being a protective older brother. It's a shame that the other performances are lacking, with Amber and Bowman's actresses giving a less than stellar acting job here.

In fact, the main conflict stemming from Amber's journey of grief ends up being the worst part of the film. She does warm up near the very end of the film, but there's not much to like for the first two acts. She's uncooperative and apathetic to everyone around her, and under normal circumstances, would probably be sent straight to a therapist. For example, one of Amber's first drawings is of a creature brutally stabbing Bowman. Rather than getting a reprimand, she gets an outlet to vent in the form of a notebook. This is okay, but later in the film it's shown that the drawings and backstories are horrific, which brings into question how the whole family deals with it. I understand that this is a story about facing your fears and not ignoring grief, but it comes off as disingenuous.

The biggest issue I have with this film is how this is not a family-friendly movie. This surprisingly has a PG rating, though Sketch does have some questionable content in regards to younger audiences. The monsters from Amber's sketchbook are frightening even before they come to life, and it's repeatedly mentioned that Amber depicts multiple creatures to hurt people she knows, specifically the bully Bowman; the characters even discuss how Amber has multiple monsters targeted at Bowman specifically. Sound design feels like a horror movie, with a ton of telegraphed jumpscares for those that may be a little squeamish.

While no human characters die onscreen, there is a considerable amount of gore (which is substituted by red chalk or drawings rather than explicit blood). The word h*ll as an expletive is uttered quite a few times, as are a couple instances of dumb*ss, while the word sh*t is cut off before it's completely uttered.

Overall, I left the theater feeling disappointed, as it's too scary for the target audience yet doesn't reach the heights of its premise to appeal to adults. If you're looking for a film with a similar premise that actually is family-friendly, I'd recommend something like If or even Coraline (the latter has scary elements but not to the level that Sketch does). If teens want to check this one out, I think it would be okay, but its reliance on scares does not make for a feel-good film. Angel Studios makes and distributes some great children's films, which is why I was a bit surprised to see how it turned out. This studio has movies that skew to older audiences, so it's baffling that Sketch would be marketed to young children rather than an older crowd.