Seth Worley’s “Sketch” is an odd film that sports creativity but winds up somehow both predictable and bizarre as a metaphor for how we process the loss of a parent.
It’s also a what-were-they-thinking moment for Angel Studios, which is selling it as a dark family fantasy. No, it’s much, much darker than that.
Imagine “Jumanji” (1995) without Robin Williams and add a dose of creatures who appear to have escaped “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006). I didn’t like “Sketch” very much overall, but especially dislike how Angel Studios is suddenly in the business of creating nightmare fuel for children.
The marketing materials are sugar coating how unsettling it is.
Tony Hale of “Arrested Development” fame stars as Taylor, a grieving father whose sadness over the death of his wife has made him emotionally distant from his two children and slow at moving on and selling his home. Taylor’s daughter Amber (Bianca Belle) draws angry, frightening pictures that catch the attention of her classmates and teacher.
While Amber’s pictures are understandably a means of processing her feelings, they freak everyone out. It gets worse when, due to a magic pond (or something), Amber’s illustrations come to life and terrorize everyone.
An attempt to broaden the scope and suggest that the admittedly cool-looking CGI monsters are harassing people on a massive scale, a la “Ghostbusters” (1984), is brought up in news footage, then never addressed again. The suggestion that the magic on hand could be used to bring back Amber’s dead mother (initially hinted then verbalized) is a plot strand that would be fine for “Pet Sematary” (1989) but seems tasteless here.
The message seems to be fairly straightforward but gets jumbled through the presentation and the intensity of the images. “Sketch” suggests that it’s okay to feel grief, but be sure to compartmentalize your feelings, allowing good and bad to coexist, as well as using art to express the feelings that could hurt others.
Or something.
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By the third act, when one of the kids is sporting H.P. Lovecraft tentacles and the insufferably deadpan aunt is wielding weapons like Ash in a C-grade “Evil Dead,” I wondered what on Earth I was watching.
I’m all for success stories, especially in the indie film market. However, I confess I don’t like the mediocre, heavy-handed movies Angel Studios puts out and don’t care for the aggressive post-credits infomercials they tag onto some of their films.
It’s not the fault of Angel Studios that “Sketch” kind of bites, but you’d figure that they’d catch how their off-brand release is kind of, well, sketchy and not for the intended audience indicated. If that sounds unfair, try watching an episode of their runaway success, “The Chosen” (2017-Present) follow it up with “Sketch,” and tell me if it feels like you went from watching Angel Studios to Shudder.
The PG-rating assigned to “Sketch” is a joke, unless we’re still living in the 1980s. I’m not exaggerating – this is a horror film for kids, the kind of thing Joe Dante could have gotten away with (and did in 1984 with “Gremlins”).
The frequent jump scares, frightening monsters and ample profanity (thanks to this movie, I had to explain to my little girl what a “bastard” is) should have been enough to merit this a PG-13.
Next Wednesday’s estimated location count for Angel Studios’ Sketch is 2,000 locations.#TheSketchMovie #BoxOffice pic.twitter.com/sa3Vffnzue
— BoxOfficeReport.com (@BORReport) July 31, 2025
It’s worth noting that earlier this year, Angel Studios released the CGI family film, “The King of Kings,” which was also rated PG. I’m guessing that, had that film also had a scene where a girl is being held down by a skull-faced demon who is trying to strangle her with “Venom”-like CGI vines coming out of its mouth, maybe it wouldn’t have received a PG rating?
On top of the horror movie moments, like a hiding-behind-a-tree-bit right out of “The Village” (2004) and a spider attack to match any scene from “Eight Legged Freaks” (2002), it’s also a morose family drama about a girl mourning the death of a parent.
Teens who grew up with “Harry Potter” might be able to process and enjoy this, as well as grown-ups who loved “Bridge to Terabithia” (an equally sad but far more enthralling work from 2007).
The movie this badly wants to be is “A Monster Calls” (2016), which went all in with the darkness and despair of the scenario, also showcased impressive visuals and psychological complexity in tackling a tricky, hard-to-render mainstream subject matter.
“Sketch” will work for those addicted to “Stranger Things” (2016-Present) or who fondly remember “Eerie, Indiana” (1991-1993) or even a cult item like “Little Monsters” (1989) but lacks the conviction or charm of either.
Hale succeeds at giving a sincere performance, but he can’t grant the film a needed emotional center and neither does anyone else here. The monsters are pretty cool, but they repetitively pop up, clock in a jump scare, then literally vanish.
Overall, I found the movie to be a wonky, feel-good parable, but I also disliked it because my little girl spent most of the movie hiding her face in my shoulder. What was I thinking, taking her to this? Maybe because, for one thing, I trusted a supposedly family-trusted film studio…which I ironically have never liked in the first place.
The one thing “Sketch” has over the similar but far worse “IF” (2024) from last summer is that at least there are no musical numbers, and it wraps up in 90 minutes.
Two Stars (out of four)