Horror is such an overworked genre these days with every possible variation tried and tried again, every successful franchise running through countless sequels before starting all over again ala Sceam , Halloween, and more. The “found footage” sub-genre also wore itself into the ground with one prime example, Paranormal Activity, even doing a variation as a Broadway play. But for real chills and scares, the granddaddy The Blair Witch Project still is the crown jewel.
What I liked about A24‘s latest dive into the genre , undertone, which found its way into the Midnights section of the Sundance Film Festival Saturday night after initially winning the audience award at last summer’s Fantasia Film Festival, is it leaves so much to the imagination rather than pounding you into submission with all the cliches we have come to expect. It is creepy as hell, but it lives in reality and travels in soundscapes that even manages to tell us more with our eyes closed rather than open.
undertone represents the feature film writing and directing debut for Ian Tuason who pulls from his own personal experience to dream up this scenario of a paranormal podcast that stumbles on to a truly terrifying situation for an unseen pregnant married couple. That didn’t happen to Tuason, but he began to get the idea for the film while caregiving during the pandemic for his dying parents in his hometown of Toronto. His mother died in just a few months, his father 2 1/2 years later, but the experience of watching slow death and hallucinations led him literally back to that childhood home where he shot this little piece of what they call “micro horror”. It is as much a psychological suspense film as anything else, and that is where it gets its powers, not from any cheap tricks.
Basically a radio play audiences might have listened to in the pre -TV era, this is modernized as a podcast which our troubled protagonist, the person we actually see rather than just hear, Evy Babic (Nina Kiri) comes downstairs to her makeshift recording studio in her home to tape episodes with her co-host Justin ( Adam DiMarco) coming in from another distant location. Their show examines weird urban myths, unsolved cases, and paranormal activity from various recordings they acquire. In this case it is a set of 10 audio files sent anonymously and centered on what we come to know as a married couple, the female expecting a child, and increasingly weird things seem to be happening, at least from what Evy and Justin can tell. What makes their show work is that Justin is the believer and Evy is the skeptic — that is until she isn’t. But I don’t want to give too much away in that regard except to say she increasingly has reason to believe as things slowly start to go beyond her control. Into the mix for our podcasters are children’s nursery rhymes, playing them backwards, and getting unsettling demonic messages, Tuason throws in with the continuing plotline of this couple’s pending terror.
Evy is a bit messed up. In addition to trying to stay sober, she is caring for her dying mother (Michele Duquet in a comatose performance) upstairs, just waiting for her to pass away, and not heeding the strictly religious teachings her mama had given her when she was not on death’s doorstep. The infrequent visitations upstairs in the darkened house give us a sense of dread before dead. The added wrinkle here is Evy also finds she is pregnant from a loser boyfriend and has to deal with that too. It is no wonder she finds respite in the moments she records her show with Justin as they run through the audio files one by one, looking for some conclusion. Creepy campfire tales of a ghostly demon who causes still births for unsuspecting mothers the world over doesn’t help her own peace of mind.
Tuason got his footing in 360 degree horror shorts on You Tube,as well as 3D videos and VR content before jumping into feature filmmaking with undertone. What makes this work so well is what it leaves to us to see, hear, and feel. The state-of-the-art sound design is next level here, so subtle in parts it may require more than one viewing to really take it all in. It is in fact a movie that is almost completely dependent on the art of sound in all its gradations, and even if towards the end it gets a little more familiar with the usual stuff of the horror genre, it remains a complete original.
Kiri’s Evy is complicated and fascinating, and the actor expertly handles a role which essentially is a one woman play, nearly all her co-stars (except the mother) not physically present but only in voiceover. Chief among them is DiMarco whose smooth delivery importantly convinces us of the unique relationship he has with Evy. Other actors are on board for various tasks including the couple in states of distress that are genuinely disturbing. So is undertone.
Producers are Dan Slater and Cody Calahan.
Title: undertone
Festival: Sundance – Midnights
Distributor: A24 Films
Release Date: March 13, 2026
Director/Screenplay: Ian Tuason
Cast: Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michele Duquet
Running Time: 1 hour and 34 minutes