undertone, 2026.
Written and Directed by Ian Tuason.
Starring Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet, Keana Bastidas, Jeff Yung, Ryan Turner, Brian Quintero, Marisol D’Andrea, Austin Tuason, Seled Calderon, Bianca Nugara, Jayda Woods, Sarah Beaudin, and Christina Notto.
SYNOPSIS:
The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way.
Writer/director Ian Tuason’s undertone has a distinct, refreshing approach to horror, in which much of the attempted chills and thrills come from dialogue and unexplainable sounds in mysterious audio files sent to a paranormal podcasting duo by an anonymous sender with a cryptic email address. This extends to the unnerving silence from surrounding spaces when host Evy (Nina Kiri) dons noise-cancelling headphones during recording sessions, and nursery rhymes with horrific hidden meanings when slowed down and played in reverse or researched online. That is when Tuason is interested in sticking to that idea, anyway.
Frustratingly, this is one of those films that consistently feels the need to shy away from its tantalizing premise and undercut whatever momentum could be built and sustained, keeping the recording sessions shockingly short, quickly reaching the point that it’s a wonder how Evy and co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco, only heard through voice) are productive enough to release weekly episodes, let alone garner a following large enough to receive several call-ins when they set a time and encourage listeners to interact.
When not podcasting, the film is attempting to flesh out a life for Evy beyond paranormal investigation, as a young woman moved back in with her bedridden dying unconscious mother, (Michèle Duquet, credited as Mama), disenchanted with her deadbeat boyfriend Darren (Ryan Turner, also only a disembodied voice) who can’t even be bothered to drop off food once in a while, and not quite at terms with the fact that not only is she struggling to sleep, but also living like a hermit. With religious iconography placed all over the bedroom, and gauging from how Evy looks at some of it and interacts with it, whether it be a portrait or figurine, not to mention old voice memos from her mom, it is clear that this has either played into their love for one another or inevitably caused friction.
Given that Evy, “in character” on the podcast, regularly goads Justin into deeper dives into paranormal cases on the grounds that she doesn’t seem to believe in any of this, always resorting to either logic or throwaway explanations, it’s also safe to say that maybe she wasn’t much of a religious person. Regardless, the duo has received their juiciest material yet, in increasingly disturbing audio recordings between husband Mike (Jeff Yung) and his sleepwalking, possibly speaking in tongues, perhaps even possessed wife Jessa (Keana Bastidas) that drag the podcasters down a rabbit hole of twisted inspirations behind nursery rhymes that typically involve harm being done to children.
Audio is played in reverse, spliced out, modified for clarity, and more, all with the occasional visual flourish of a camera fixated on laptop screens and sound spikes. Also eerie are the empty spaces within this home, where sometimes nothing is happening in the background, and other times, something spooky is forming in the shadows. The film also makes use of nearly every noise a household or furniture object can make (circling Evy, her mother, and the characters in the recordings), sometimes multiple times over, which would be easily dismissed as overtly annoying jump scares if not for the impeccable sound design in the Dolby format that A24 is insistent that critics and audiences experience the film through. That soundscape erupts into an all-out, chaotic, cacophonous, nightmarish freakout in the final 15 minutes, which doesn’t necessarily amount to anything from a narrative perspective but is nonetheless almost enough to recommend undertone.
What’s missing is depth of character and simple common sense; you’re telling me a couple of podcasters well-versed in Internet research didn’t bother to search the names of the people in these audio files, which would have unquestionably spat out a startling, tragic news story? Aside from one scene of dating advice, Justin is a nothing character, with the script leaving much of their dynamic and connection unexplored.
In addition to leaving several loose threads dangling (this really is a film that’s trying to rattle the viewer, nothing more and nothing less) without saying much of anything about parent-daughter relationships or even Evy as a skeptic podcast host (are we also supposed to take delight that she gets what’s coming for playing the tenth and final file of something that is quite obviously more than a hoax?), Worse, if there is anything to take away, it seems Evy is being punished for something else entirely, which would send a questionable message. It’s also far too slow and takes far too long to build to the one set piece that might make undertone worth a watch. The recordings themselves are admittedly creepy and lend the film the dense atmosphere it aims for, but that doesn’t necessarily mean scary.
Ian Tuason breaks that thick atmosphere up so much that one can only wonder what could have been if the film were a straight hellish one-night bender of compulsively getting lost in these recordings. If undertone were committed to the concept and to maintaining that dread-inducing atmosphere with momentum, the fright in those final 15 minutes would have been amplified. In Dolby, it truly does feel as if the soundscape is attacking the viewer from every direction, in motion, with precise calibration for terror. 15 minutes don’t make a film, though. There is something here, but it needs some serious refinement in narrative and structure.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
