A paranormal podcast listens to 10 mysterious pieces of audio sent to them anonymously. That’s the very basic, very intriguing premise of Undertone, a new horror film from writer-director Ian Tuason. And while the film is obviously about much more than that, the fact that the premise is so simple is maybe its greatest asset. It automatically sucks you in with all the questions you instinctually have, and then uses that against you.
Questions like, “What’s in the audio? Who sent it? Why did they send it? And what, if anything, will happen to the podcasters listening to it?” Those characters are Evy, played by Nina Kiri, and Justin, voiced by Adam DiMarco. They run a podcast exploring weird, creepy happenings, which Justin believes in, and Evy does not. And, we say “voiced” for Justin because we never see him. The film is completely told through Evy’s point of view, from her house, where she is taking care of her dying mother (Michèle Duquet).
The basic structure of Undertone is centered on those pieces of audio. It’s a count-up, instead of a countdown, as we watch Evy on her computer, listening to the audio with Justin listening on the other end. First, they listen to part one, then part two, and so on. Slowly, we hear the story of a married couple whose nighttime routines get increasingly sinister. But again, did they send the audio? What’s going on here? Like Evy, we’re forced to think about not just what’s on the files, but their origins as well.
It almost goes without saying, but as each piece of audio is played, the contents and their potential real-world impact get increasingly disturbing. The anticipation builds and builds, and it does so in a few specific ways. The most obvious is through the sound mix. The sound in Undertone is great, as it jumps all over the speakers and forces you to almost reach out with your ears in an attempt to break through the mysteries. The editing is key too, especially when the characters take breaks from recording, allowing us to learn more about their world outside the computer, and make the anxiety about the next piece of audio grow.
The third piece is the camerawork. At its heart, Undertone is basically a movie about a woman sitting down at her computer. Not very exciting. To combat that, Tuason makes the camera the second lead of the movie. At times, it just sits quietly, watching Evy react to what we’re hearing. But at other times, the camera develops a mind of its own and explores the rest of the house. Often, it checks in on Evy’s mom, who we think is comatose, but there are tiny signs that might not be the case. In every film, the camera is the audience’s eyes, but here, it feels even more so. Especially when things start to happen during the audio that Evy is too locked in to notice.
None of that works without Evy being a relatable character, and Kiri delivers that and more. She gives an understated, yet human performance that allows us to be scared both for her and with her. That we also learn her life is being put on pause to care for her mother, and the sacrifices that entail, only adds to the character being so engaging and our fear for her growing.
That fear rises rather methodically at first, as Tuason slowly peels the layers back of what’s really happening with the audio. In fact, for a while, those reveals come a little too slowly, and Undertone teeters on a dangerous cliff of being underwhelming. Thankfully, that all goes away with the final few pieces of audio, which take a movie that’s operating at maybe a 7 out of 10 in terms of creepy and turn it up to a 700 out of 10. The final few minutes of Undertone are manic and unsettling to a level that elevates everything that came before it.
Now, did we understand everything that happened at the end? Not really. Lots of theories and plot lines are teased throughout the film, and its ending seems to confirm some of those. But, for the most part, at least on a first viewing, Undertone wraps up a little more ambiguously than you may want. And yet, that ambiguity also works in a way because each and every possibility going through your mind is more terrifying than the last.
Undertone is a super solid, simple horror movie that is filled with great scares and better ideas. We wouldn’t recommend watching it alone, but we do recommend keeping an eye on Tuason as a filmmaker. He’s got a bright, scary future ahead if he’s capable of something like this on his first attempt.
Undertone is now in theaters.
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Source: Gizmodo