By UNDERTONE is a film that lingers, opening with a gentle, unexpected threat. As you’re introduced to the bedroom of our lead, Evy, her sick mama sings a seemingly innocent children’s song. The moment acts as an introduction to not only the deeply religious background of the film, but also the bone-chilling performances from Nina Kiri and Michelle Duquet. Evy is the co-host of a podcast that explores paranormal findings, including those across the internet. During the care of her mother in the final days of her life, the podcast acts as her only thread of normalcy. With her relationship with her boyfriend, Darren, on the rocks and the weight of caregiving shrinking her further and further into madness, things really derail for Evy when her co-host and friend, Justin, performed by Adam DiMarco (their show’s called “The Undertone”), play the audio from a set of 10 files that they were sent by a random, now inactive email address. What begins as a seemingly innocent set of recordings of a couple living their day-to-day life—with the man wanting to prove to his partner that she talks in her sleep—quickly turns dark as children’s songs, including “London Bridge,” are played backwards, and “the scariest movie you’ll ever hear” tagline that A24 has been selling ramps up to meet its promise.
Director Ian Tuason showcases the type of fear that slowly creeps into unassuming settings, shots lasting just a few seconds too long as something not quite right sits in the stillness. Wide shots allow for an atmospheric unease that still manages to suffocate, but what stands out even stronger than these small snapshots is the way that the soundscape scrapes down your spine. Whether it be small moments of breathing or the conspicuous ticking of a clock, the audio leaves you crawling out of your skin with no other way to shield yourself from the fear that it bends you towards. Evy, despite being the podcast’s resident skeptic against full-believer Justin, repeatedly asks for breaks from their sessions involving these recordings.
It’s during these breaks she’s further unnerved, as she itches to discard her mother’s religious decor; even the candles don’t seem quite right. She questions the innocence of her childhood, and is suddenly enthralled with discovering the secret meaning behind “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” backwards. These moments are where the horror roots itself in reality. Many of these popular nursery rhymes were never meant for children and instead got passed into the wrong hands. Verbally passed down for their gentle nature, most are centuries-old jingles originally designed as cautionary tales regarding adulthood and even politics; as an outlet for fear and frustration, they are much better suited for parenthood, but they instead became a comfort for those that are beginning their journey in this world. That very piece of history is just as unsettling as the way UNDERTONE unfolds.
When Evy discovers that she is pregnant, the movie takes its darkest turn, Evy turning to drinking and aimlessly scribbling unsettling drawings through their recordings. UNDERTONE truly thrives under this premise, pairing a hovering paranormal element with a real grieving sense of madness, leaving the viewer to follow in one of the host’s footsteps as either a believer or a skeptic to the story unfolding in front of their eyes. The real fear is potentially the way that, without the right support systems, a woman can spiral under the pressures of motherhood. Without a mother to help her, Evy finds herself with no one to turn to; carrying the guilt of leaving it behind prior to her mother’s illness, not even religion is there for her. But more obviously, the fear can also be found in the dangers of a demon stopping at nothing to get what it wants from its host. Shots of the house in complete disarray (light bulbs blowing out, the bedridden mother occupying unlikely spaces around the home) stay with the viewer long after the film goes dark. Unafraid of breaking conventions through the use of vertical shots and a slowed pace that allows for the fear to settle, the technical execution of the horror itself is a strong point.
In a genre that has been so consumed by fast-paced scares, it’s easy to expect a quicker escalation, but if UNDERTONE gave in to that, it would sacrifice the very thing that makes it so addictive to watch. The story unfolding through the podcast creeps into your mind as much of the film allows itself to root into your own imagination. Justin is never seen, along with the couple featured in the audio. Instead, the presence of these characters is made real by playing with your ears, swapping audio from one side of the theater to another, and immersing you in the same headspace as Evy under the spell of her headphones.
UNDERTONE trusts itself enough to follow a vision outside of the conventional scope of its genre, making for one of the best horror pictures in recent decades. As Tuason’s debut, he has already made his mark on both the genre and the elements he seeks to highlight, and I join the many since the film’s premiere at Montrel’s Fantasia Fest who are excited to see what comes from his mind next. Even when the film cuts to black, it holds you to one last seat-gripping moment as the audio pulls you into the fear that has taken over Evy and her seemingly ordinary household, leaving you with a dread that refuses to let go.
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