It plays more like a horror movie than you'd expect from the pre-release marketing. You might be a little surprised by the tone of the movie, considering that it's aimed at kids. And in case you doubt that it's aimed at kids, wait for the mid-credits ad blitz about an app that turns kids' sketches into 3-D animated monsters. Which is maybe, after all, what this movie is about. I'm a past master at not spotting what a movie is about. Remember Healer? I thought it was trying at some kind of inspirational, Christian message, and it turned out to be a commercial for a line of camps for kids with cancer. But despite the mercenary aspect of this movie's apparent mission, there's definitely something in it about facing grief as a family.
It has some heartstring-pulling emotional bits, with relatable kids experiencing some tough feelings. It has thought-provoking bits, like how the brother sincerely wants to help his sister but ends up blowing up at her (because she resents being treated like she needs help) and immediately feeling ashamed. I think the actors, particularly including the hero kids, do a great job. I think the writers did a great job, writing dialogue that snaps with tension and character conflict and leaves enough unsaid that you have to figure out, at times, what the characters are trying to say. Like the line where the realtor aunt/sister says to the dad/brother whose house she's trying to sell, "I noticed something interesting about the family pictures on the wall. Something was ... Was that intentional?" I forget exactly how she said it, but I remember that there was an element of "extrapolating from incomplete information" and "hitting very close to the heart of the whole thing" in that line. It's a script that goes from hilariously funny to heartbreaking to spooky to downright disturbing in a few heartbeats, and circles back again.
The sketchy monsters are a unique visual spectacle, too. There's a tragic sensibility about them – the girl drew them in her notebook after being assured that once put there, her bad feelings could never hurt anyone; but now that her brother's magic pond has touched them, they totally can hurt people, and lowkey probably do. (We are spared the gore and death, however. One more thing uncomfortable, squirming parents can take comfort in.)
Like I said, the cast does well, though I don't know from any of them except perhaps Tony Hale, as the dad. I'd drop names to watch out for in the future if I hadn't learned that my doing so is almost a curse on young actors' future careers. So here, without further palaver, are the Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) The son tries to warn his father that he thinks his sister's drawings are coming to life. The father is like, "I don't know what you're dealing with, but when you're ready to really talk about it, I'm here." The kid's look of mixed incredulity and betrayal is priceless. (2) The kids fight off a swarm of piders – or are they eyeders? – in a battle that pretty well trashes their house. (3) The girl brings her kind-of-terrifying, drawn-on arm tentacles to life. She's a trooper in an unapologetically scary way. Honorable mention: The father realizes what his kid is trying to do with his mother's ashes, just when the kid realizes he can't do it. The result is kind of the emotional catharsis of the whole "dudes need to mourn" storyline, with acting worthy of it.
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