As a regular podcaster, “Undertone” was always going to be a movie that made me feel seen and on my must see list. While A24 has created a sort of horror box that all of their elevated spooky slate fits into – the grief monster metaphor is quickly becoming tiresome – this latest outing offers something both familiar and terrifyingly unique. Fueled by unassailable sound design, “Undertone” combines sight and sound to deliver a sensory overload of scares, the kind that slowly get under your skin and then grabs you in its finale before you have a chance to escape. I don’t scare very easily these days, and maybe my own work in audio made this more effective than most, but I was absolutely stressed TF out the entire time. “Undertone” is the scariest movie you will ever hear, viscerally overloading your eardrums with haunts that are sure to keep you up at night and evoke a physical reaction when you hear it again.
There’s a simplicity to “Undertone” that helps its effectiveness. Not only is it auditory forward, but it is a stripped down, single location chamber piece that expertly creates a sense of claustrophobia as we remain firmly planted in small, creepy spaces of this home. Written and directed by Ian Tuason, the film follows Evy (an incredible Nina Kiri who carries the entire film), a supernatural investigative podcaster who is stuck in her childhood home caring for her dying mother. Death lingers in the old walls and surrounds her as she waits for her mother to take her last breath, which should be any day now. She’s the resident skeptic of their show, debunking and doubting all of the supposed unexplained phenomenon the discuss. In her new recording, her co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco) receives 10 mysterious audio files that they decide to listen to one by one. Justin latches on to any possible sound out of the ordinary while Evy dismisses them. Of course, the more they listen the more things begin to happen around her and she quickly realizes she may not be able to dismiss or even escape the sounds that seem to close in and get louder and louder the more she listens.
“Undertone” smartly resists showing us anyone else except Evy and an occasional glimpse at her frail, bedridden mother in a coma. We never see her co-host, her boyfriend, or anyone from the audio files as they slowly unpack the mystery. We stay very close on Evy all the time, with next to no one else in any frame throughout its runtime. This allows the sound design to not only boom into your chest but be effectively selective in what it reveals to us. Graham Beasley’s cinematography douses the screen with reds and shadows, tilting the camera often to create different angles that constantly make the walls feels like they’re not just closing in, but breathing with something sinister. “Undertone” never reveals more than it has to, and keeps us glued to the next recording as we too are now in investigator mode.
Every time Evy puts her headphones on, the sound drops out and all we hear is the noise cancelling hum. Its sound is so immersive in this way, and it makes for a terrifying audio experience I don’t think I’ve ever had before. As it hurdles towards its conclusion, “Undertone” leaves you torn between covering your eyes in horror or scanning the screen for something, ANYTHING that may clue you in to what is happening. It’s a slow burn escalation of events, lulling you into the mystery piece by piece, dropping the occasional jump scare or creepy noise and once it has you in its grip, it holds on tight and never lets go. The final 20 minutes just may be some of the most unsettling, overwhelming sensory overload experiences I’ve had in a theater in a long time. A whirlwind of clever camera tricks, dizzying lighting and booming sound that go so hard and so aggressive you won’t have a chance to catch your breath until the final shot.
Beneath its strengths, “Undertone” is narratively weak. The overall story feels like stock A24, as if Tauson sat down and intentionally tried to write an A24 horror movie. For how dialed in the craft is, there’s some part of you that may not allow it to grip you as tightly and come away feeling more disappointed than scared. I’m all for ambiguity in horror, particularly in today’s horror genre where everything has to be over explained or it all has to connect. Again: grief monster. It is clearly cut from the “Hereditary” cloth, and if you only see its derivative inspirations, those flaws and comparisons can become glaring. “Undertone” may not have as strong of a narrative engine if you look under the hood a little deeper, but it succeeds in not trying to answer too many questions and letting the unknown fester in your mind in its final moments. You’re never really sure what is or isn’t happening at any given time, and when it all ends what actually happened is left up to us to decide. This ramps up the scare factor when combined with its excellent sight and sound, and overcomes many of the storytelling pitfalls in the end.
“Undertone” is a film that needs to be heard in the biggest theater with a huge crowd. I think it’ll probably play well on a rewatch at home if you have headphones, adding a new layer of auditory haunt. But don’t start there. Start in a dark theater and let this movie scare you. Go in blind with your ears up, and let this new solid horror flick take you on an unforgettable ride.
You will never listen to nursery rhymes the same way ever again.
Rating: 4 out of 5
“Undertone” is in theaters March 13th. You can watch the trailer below.
