UNDERTONE (2025)

New in theaters from A24!
Directed/Written by Ian Tuason.
Check out the trailer here!!

Evy (Nina Kiri) returns to her childhood home to care for her dying mother for her last days, taking the responsibility upon herself to feed, clean, and care for her. Though her mother is non-responsive, Evy seems to have put everything in her life on hold while her mother wastes away. Everything except her weekly supernatural podcast, the Undertone, where Evy plays the cynic to her fellow podcaster Justin (voiced, but never seen, by Adam DiMarco), who tends to be more of a believer in all things supernatural, or at least seems to be open to there being things out there that just can’t be explained. Justin receives an email from an anonymous party that contains ten audio files and both he and Evy decide to open the mysterious files on the air in sequence. But playing these audio files out loud seem to be affecting Evy, who aside from her non-responsive mother, is alone in this large, lonely, and horribly lit house.

Let me start by saying that UNDERTONE is not going to be for everyone. It moves at a very slow pace with a lot of ominous things occurring around Evy, but very little action. The film takes place entirely in the home of Evy’s mother, so much of the film revolves around Evy walking through the hallway slowly, investigating strange noises, and of course, doing her podcast at her computer. If you’re the type of viewer who needs a jump scare or heinous death scene every five minutes, you’re going to find UNDERTONE to be a tough trek to travel. For those who don’t mind a depthy character study that depicts a person slowly turning from a cynic to believer after some paranormal occurrences that grow in intensity as the minutes tick by, I think UNDERTONE is going to be one to seek out.

Nina Kiri is basically putting on a one woman show here as Evy. She is front and center in every scene, only interacting with her unresponsive mother upstairs and her unseen podcast partner Justin throughout the entire movie. It’s not an easy task but she handles the weight of this film well. We experience the sense that something is off with both the recordings, as well as what is going on in the home, through her eyes and ears. It makes for a very intimate experience as we get to know the burden Evy carries with taking care of her mother, paired with a healthy dose of catholic guilt piled upon her as indicated by the numerous crosses and religious symbols adorning the walls of this small home. All of this paints a very sympathetic character to follow.

But the main star of UNDERTONE is the sound design. The audio files played for the podcast reminds me of the sounds from Regan’s room in THE EXORCIST combined with those terrifying phone calls from the classic slasher BLACK CHRISTMAS. Yeah, it gets to be that unsettling. And as the movie goes on, I came to dread the playing of the next recording just like when I felt overcome by a sense of blackness every time a new night scene arrived in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. Having seen that film in a theater full of people, the shudders and groans of anticipation that something horrifying is coming up feels like an apt comparison to this film as it played on and we descended deeper and deeper into these recordings.

One thing I should point out that I guess is a gripe about UNDERTONE is the reliance on nursery rhymes, or more accurately, the slowing down and creeping up of nursery rhymes is a long-tired trope in horror. It’s been played out in most CONJURING, INSIDIOUS, and the like movies. Hell, I even remember thinking the nursery rhyme creep factor had died out when I saw the 1997 thriller NIGHTWATCH with Ewan MacGregor back in the day. And yes, it is kind of macabre that all of those old kids’ songs serve as warnings for children about the terrors of adulthood or are based on some specific dark story. Still, the concept is a bit tiring, yet it shows up in UNDERTONE and relates prominently to the plot. It was surprising to me that such a horror savvy film would use this trope, but at least it does it well.

There are plenty of horror scenes that occur every time Evy puts her headphones on in UNDERTONE. It’s one of those films that takes advantage of the very specific fear that, while wearing headphones, something dangerous might just be creeping up on you as Evy’s headphones drown out everything around her. She even sleeps with ear buds, once again, blocking out any kind of dangers that might be looming in the home or coming from these audio recordings. It says a lot about Evy’s character that she seems very eager to drown out the real world and all of the problems that comes with it in this way. As an added bonus, it makes for some sheer terrifying scenes where you don’t know if the sound is coming from the audio recordings or from the house Evy is residing in. All of this escalates into an almost deafening cacophony of nightmare noise by the time the film climaxes. This is a film to watch with the volume all the way up to 11 to really immerse oneself in the horror.

If you have the patience for it, UNDERTONE is something you should go see immediately. I say this mainly because this is a film that really should be seen in a theater—unless you have a seriously badass sound system in your home, that is. UNDERTONE is more of a theatrical experience as the use of sound is the most important, the most terrifying factor of the movie. The shocking conclusion is an assault to the ears and a knife to the heart growing and growing until the absolutely shattering silence that occurs as the credits roll. See this one and more accurately hear this horrifying movie as fast as you can.