I first got wind of Sketch while putting together the Summer Movie Preview. The trailer hooked me with its mix of horror and comedy all in a family-friendly framing.
At the end of the trailer, I saw something sketch: The logo for Angel. It’s a film studio and distributor behind several overtly Christian films. Good news — it turns out the studio is dipping its toes outside the holy waters that somewhat drowned Angel’s previous films’ credibility. Angel saw an opportunity for Sketch to ascend beyond its holy form and dropped a couple of million dollars into the distribution basket.
Sketch is not a Christian movie. It does have an attempted resurrection — but not the Easter kind. And the only holy water is a bubbling blue pond that fixes broken things; sort of.
The family at the center of Sketch needs some fixing. The story kicks off after the kids’ mother died. There’s a notable absence of her in their house. No pictures on the wall. No mementos. Not even any conversations about mom.
But the daughter is expressing herself. She sketches violent images in a notepad. Her father sees these disturbing images and, along with her brother, decide she needs to be fixed.
I’d call Sketch gateway horror – but this film would have R.L. Stine crapping his pants. First-time feature director Seth Worley hits you with all of the horror tricks. He uses music and sound straight from horror classics even during non-horror moments. It’s playful and fun. But when the horror really kicks in, he doesn’t hold back.
The daughter has drawn horrifying sketches of creatures from the darkest recesses of her mind. When her notebook falls into the magic pond, those creatures come into existence. Worley uses these delightful creations to terrorize the children in this film. The chases, the jump scares, the frenzied critters, the slow reveals — all are executed precisely to make you jump and crawl in your seat, even though the creatures are Crayon, chalk, or marker creations.
Sketch is about more than scares though. It’s about the struggle of recovering from trauma. As we see here, hiding from reality doesn’t help. Expressing yourself does.
Art heals. Constructive creativity heals. Expressions that expose yourself to the world open you up to be healed.
When you don’t confront grief and trauma through positive expression or public acknowledgement, that grief and trauma will express itself in unpredictable and negative ways.
I’m stunned that most studios passed on this film. It’s so much better than that Christian-tinted movie about purple Crayons or the creature-come-to-life-through-Crayons film made by Jim from The Office.
Kudos to Angel for embracing Sketch. It’s not religious. It has a moral. But it never feels too in-your-face.
Have a little sip of the blood of Christ (don’t forget to aerate!). But be warned, at any moment a jump scare or dry one-liner may cause you to spit it out.
🎬🎬🎬
Where to watch
Rating: PG (Me: 7+)
Director: Seth Worley
Starring: Tony Hale, D’Arcy Carden, Bianca Belle, Kue Lawrence
Run time: 1h 32m
Post-credits scenes: A mid-credits marketing video shows off an app your kids might actually like. It’s a monster maker that turns your sketch into monsters on your phone. A member of the NAKM community highly recommends it.
Bathroom breaks: Sorry, I wasn’t keeping track, I was having too a good of a time. And RunPee didn’t track this film.
Sequel? I’d love that, but doubt it. This is likely just a one-off.
If you liked Sketch, check out these films (scaling from least scary to scariest):
- The Imaginary (2023) (6+)
- Inkheart (2008) (6+)
- Goosebumps (2015) (6+)
- Where the Wild Things Are (2009) (6+)
- A Monster Calls (2016) (9+)
- Paperhouse (1988) (9+)
- The Babadook (2014) (10+)
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Find this title on the Family Film Recommendations list
