Sketch

This 2024 film by Seth Worley, was inspired by his short film, "Dark Colors". This is a surprisingly entertaining film. It seems to be by it's marketing to young moviegoers, but it has a darker set up. Advertised as a comedy fantasy, it's more of a black comedy arched more to horror.

The premise is about a family in mourning, a father and two children. One child, "Amber" who is a reclusive and very artistic youth, who gets bullied. Her anger is driven out onto paper as sketches. This is where the film is oddly for young viewers, images of imagined violence with monsters and their special abilities.

The other child, discovered a "magical" magic pond near their home. It has special water, and does wondrous as well as horrible things. Then Amber's angered sketching begins to take form.

I feel what makes this film a tad terrifying, is the sound effects. This film may drag with its story, but the visual effects are superb along with monster creations.

As far as the cast Tom Hale plays the widow parent, "Taylor Wyatt" and along with the strong lead by young actor, Bianca Belle as "Amber". The director calls it a mix of "Jurassic Park" and "Inside Out" but it feels more like "Goonies" meet "It: Chapter One" kids!

Lastly, the film's overall effects are pretty mesmerizing as a youth led cast steer the sequences, giving off more serious tense scenes (look out for the school bus segment).

As silly and infantile "Amber's" monsters appear, Worley's orchestrated scenes (not depending on gore effects or jump scares) really evolve them into menacing entities . Its soundtrack and sound effects, help to deliver some terrifying seconds with the monsters. In some ways echoes Joe Dante's 80s segment with cartoon-like monsters from "Twilight Zone, The Movie".

I was cynical at first and thought I wouldn't enjoy this film, but my kids wanted to go so I brought them... and it ended up being the most fun I had in theaters in recent memory! I haven't laughed as hard or frequent in a film in years! My kids were legit on the edge of their seats and one turned and said, "Woh! This movie is intense!"

Brings back the glory and inspired storytelling of the 80s and 90s. The screenwriting, directing, acting and editing was all spectacular! Worthy of the big screen and I feel sorry for anyone who misses out on this movie going experience!

If I'd have gone to see this by myself I would have had much better feelings about it. I thought the representation of Amber's grief and the lesson of balancing that with the good was powerful, and they went about it without trying to dismiss or "fix" her in the end (as can be surmised from the previews that that's the direction it would go). From an adult perspective I thought it was great.

But as it were, I took my 5 and 8 year old, and deeply regretted not looking to the reviews further before seeing it, thinking I could blindly trust an Angel Studios movie to have a PG movie actually be appropriate for little kids. (I was originally not going to take the 5 year old, but we ended up having a spot to fill last minute) So the lower rating is because the misrepresentation is quite problematic.

As many reviews have said, it had such a strong horror movie tone to it, dappled with the lighthearted moments seen in the previews. There were definitely some laugh-out-loud funny parts, but much of it had even my 8 year old freaked out and hiding behind covered eyes. I think he'll be alright, in the end he said he liked it, but it's not the sort of experience I want for my kids.

To me though the worse part was the unexpectedly frequent swearing. We have been really diligent about that and my kids came away with some new words they haven't heard before. Which really wouldn't be so bad if they didn't relentlessly repeat everything they hear. Not the sort of thing I'd have expected to experience from this studio, so I was really disappointed with that.

Basically, this is just a warning to parents with small kids to always do your homework and make the effort to check content before seeing a movie, despite what studio it's from.

Did an early mystery movie release, brought two kids: both teen/tween range and they laughed, gasped and maybe a bit of a jump scare or two. It's not a perfect movie as you can read by some of the grumps here expecting an Oscar worthy effort but it's definitely worth a viewing, if only to remember what it was like to have an imagination and just sketch and why many of us sketched as kids.

Amber uses drawing as a way to deal with her dark and negative feelings. The method was harmless until her journal fell into a mysterious pond, bringing her dark creations to life and her feelings out. Now she and her family must figure out a way to stop them from wreaking havoc on their town.

Emotions and feelings are complex enough to deal with, and this film attempts to show how children handle and express them. The story is sad, but it is kept light with antics and shenanigans. There is not much backstory given, and the film quickly gets to the point, making the one hour and thirty-two minute runtime go by. Despite the colorful things, there are dark tones, making this film suitable for older children. Worth watching for anyone, children and adults alike, who struggles with communicating, expressing, or understanding their feelings and emotions.