Undertone

Grade: A-

Undertone instantly made me think of two other movies, and I liked it better than both. I was reminded of The Outwaters from early 2023. It’s a found footage film with limited visibility and a cacophony of sound, but it showed the promise of an up-and-coming director whose name I still hope to see again. It also brought up memories of director Steve Buscemi’s The Listener, which had more offscreen voices than actors we saw in the movie. It was essentially a one-hander with Tessa Thompson as a suicide helpline worker, taking calls in the middle of the night.

Undertone has only two actors who we physically see – one of whom is silent, elderly, and bedridden in a coma. It’s basically Nina Kiri carrying everything. She has a Christina Ricci/Jenna Ortega kind of thing going on, and has wonderful star potential. She plays Evy, who hosts a spooky paranormal podcast with her friend Justin. She is back at her childhood home, taking care of her ailing mother. Justin lives across the pond. They record their episodes at 3am, Evy’s time. He believes in the woo-woo stuff, and she is the resident skeptic who tries to find the logical explanation for what they discuss on the air.

Justin has received an anonymous email containing ten separate audio files. Over the course of a few nights, they play them in order and analyze them on the show. “Backwards masking” is involved, which I’ve never bought into. The idea that someone would write lyrics so that they would sound like something specific when played in reverse just seems exhausting if not impossible. It’s often a case of our minds being influenced up front. “Do you hear this? Doesn’t it sound like such-and-such?” That being said, the sound design in one scene made me clearly clock a phrase before it was suggested. Though we only hear Justin and never see him, Adam DiMarco is involving and convincing in his performance. I have no idea if he was on set to read his lines so Nina Kiri can play off of them, or if someone else was feeding her the dialogue, but every moment and reaction plays authentically.

A blurb from an early festival review states that it’s one of the scariest movies you’ll ever hear. That’s so true. It’s more about what you hear than what you see. Much like reading a book (where all you have is words), if all you have is audio, you’re left to fill in the blanks and paint the picture for yourself. Chances are, it’s better or “worse” than anything a filmmaker could show you. Writer/director Ian Tuason – making his feature film debut – understands this. Undertone could have come across as a cop-out from a newcomer with a small budget, but instead it’s like a fledgling filmmaker utilizing everything they can to bring about a powerful cinematic experience. Since the concept mainly centers around sound, I was skeptical of exactly how much the movie could “get” me. I was captivated.

The camera work is no slouch, either. It consistently subverts expectations. A few times, the camera will pan away from Evy, leaving us expecting to see something in particular, only for it to be business as usual in the house – but when we return to Evy, she’s oriented in reverse. There’s one shot that seems to be showing a glowing ghost in the background – but on the next cut, seen with better focus, it’s just a floor lamp in the distance by the window. Even though Evy occasionally does so, the viewer never leaves or sees any action outside of the house.

I’ve read at least one critic review saying the final act is nuts. I agree with that, but it’s not crazy in any ways I would have predicted. Most of the shock value comes from what we hear. When it comes to the most disturbing images I’ve ever had conjured up in a film, it’s up there. There’s also a follow-through with the visuals. After an entire movie of being trained to look in the background and off to the sides for ultimately nothing, finally there’s something to see. I remember my grandparents talking about old radio serials. People tuned in to these programs that, obviously, had to rely on dialogue, music, and sound effects. That always sounded so boring and antiquated. All these decades later, thanks to Undertone, I get it now.

Grade: A-