Sketch

A family has lost the mother. The small daughter, Amber, draws, and what she draws is dark: toothed, many legged, strange creatures. Her sketchbook falls into a pond. The next day the drawings are loose in the town. Taylor, her father, is dealing with grief and finds himself chasing monsters, and the scattered members of the family have to come back together. Seth Worley writes and directs. Tony Hale plays Taylor, D'Arcy Carden plays alongside him and Bianca Belle plays Amber, with Kue Lawrence in the cast. The idea is grief made concrete. The drawings are the counterpart of anger a child cannot express and the monsters are its visible form; the narrative does not explain it and the structure rests on it. The tone moves between comedy, fantasy and horror, with open reference to American children's adventures of the eighties; the Spielberg line was frequently cited in reviews. The creature design is the strongest element; the rough lines of children's drawing are carried into three dimensions and deliberately left imperfect. It screened at the 2024 Toronto film festival, drew good reviews and was acquired by Angel Studios; it opened in America on 6 August 2025. The weakness is the second half; the chases run long and the emotional strand is resolved too quickly at the end. Who it is for: viewers who like fantastical adventure to watch as a family and stories built on grief. Who it is not for: some creature scenes are frightening for small children and the film does not hold its tone everywhere.