SYNOPSIS: In “undertone,” a new slow burn horror film now playing in theatres, a podcaster discovers the horrific power of sound. “It wants to be heard.”
CAST: Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet, Keana Lyn Bastidas, Jeff Yung, Sarah Beaudin, Brian Quintero. Written and directed by Ian Tuason.
REVIEW: A study of skepticism, grief and paranoia, “undertone” is an original and frightening film that uses audio to create sensory-driven scares.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” co-star Nina Kiri plays Evy, host of a paranormal podcast called “The Undertone.” “Welcome to the Undertone Podcast, where we talk about all things creepy.”
The “in-house skeptic” to true believer and co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco), she is drawn into a terrifying world of memory and sound when she returns to the house she grew up in to care for her dying mother (Michèle Duquet).
When files containing audio of a pregnant couple’s unsettling experiences with supernatural phenomena and distorted, eerie sounds in their home anonymously arrives in Evy and Justin’s inbox, they evaluate the files on their show.
The deeper Evy goes in her analysis, the more she is drawn into the audio. Her grip on reality loosens as troubling links between the recordings and her life emerge.
Has Evy’s isolation and grief overwhelmed her, or is there something malevolent embedded on the cursed audio? “I like it here in the dark,” a strange voice on the file whispers.
Silence is the new dark.
“undertone’s” atmosphere of loneliness and paranoia is heightened by writer/director Ian Tuason’s decision to lean into silence as much as the film’s eerie sound design. “Don’t be afraid of the dark,” Justin says, “be afraid of the silence.”
Psychologically, the lack of sound builds tension, creating a vacuum, that, when broken is jarring. Not like a jump scare, but like a shock that rattles body and soul.
A mix of tech and the uncanny, “undertone” is an exercise in style that makes great use of its sound design but has more questions than answers in its loose storytelling. As Evy and Justin record the podcast, and play the mysterious audio files, tension builds, even if the podcast itself, other than the strange recordings, isn’t exactly riveting. What is interesting is the how the digital files take on a malevolent tone the more Evy listens to them. Played backwards and forwards—the only thing creepier than creepy kids are creepy kids singing “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” in reverse—the audio becomes the soundtrack to Evy’s breakdown, an unexplained aural malevolence that pushes her to madness.
Very little is explained.
We learn small biographical details of Evy’s life—she quit drinking, perhaps has a troubled romantic relationship, is pregnant and was raised by a religious mother who now lies (mostly) comatose in the upstairs bedroom—but much is left to the imagination, which adds to the mystery.
Why do these audio clips appear to echo Evy’s life? Is it some form of evil? Hallucination? Madness? Pareidolia (the brain’s habit of finding patterns/meaning in random noise)? Whatever the answer, and there isn’t a clear one, the effect is undeniably and elegantly eerie, especially in the film’s final moments.
The star of “undertone” is David Gertsman’s sound design. Visually the film owes a debt to the elevated horror of the late teens and early 2000s and it may test the patience of horror fans hoping for more visceral thrills, but not since religious types accused Led Zeppelin of hiding Satanic messages in “Stairway to Heaven” have reversed sounds caused so much panic.
