Undertone Review

Put the podcast mic down and go outside.

If you are currently writing a screenplay about podcasters or have podcasting as a major part of your story, I need you to stop what you are doing immediately. Close Final Draft, crumple up that piece of paper, or wipe that idea from your mind because I’m telling you right now it sucks. Director Ian Tuason’s Undertone feels like a student short film STRETCHEDDD across 90 minutes, lamented not by evil demons or spirits but by bad podcasting. A script that’s so terrible it’s almost hilarious, as the scariest thing modern horror filmmakers can think of is either an old person moving in the background or some nursery rhyme slowed down and reversed. I think there is something in the last 5 minutes where the synthesis of sound design and shadows comes together that the film was marketed on, but the squeeze is not worth the juice. Undertone is a frank reminder that podcast equipment needs to be banned from movies. Keep those mics far away from sets because it’s truly so fucking boring.

Undertone follows Evy (Nina Kiri), who hosts a paranormal podcast with her friend Justin (Adam DiMarco). Evy is a caregiver for her mother (Michèle Duquet), who is in a coma/dying state for the majority of the film. Things get crazy when Evy and Justin receive creepy audio files about a married couple experiencing demonic events, causing Evy to freak out in her own life. Will these two podcasters make it to the last audio files and discover the truth?

The major problem with Undertone is the writing, and you can clearly tell there’s not enough meat on this bone to make it last over a full feature. You spend most of the time watching Evy and just listening to Justin, since the only two characters you see are Evy and her mother, hearing what essentially feels like the audio version of the first Paranormal Activity movie with noise-cancelling headphones. I’m not sure if the film is more of a horror movie, an advertisement, or a reminder of how noise-cancelling headphones work. You weirdly watch these two “podcasters” podcast for just 10 minutes at a time, talk about a long recording session, while they get freaked out by nursery rhymes and Google that they are actually about kids being killed. Riveting stuff. I love watching two people with zero chemistry do the shtick of the skeptic vs. believer when Evy can’t even handle more than 10 minutes of creepy audio without having a meltdown. Evy and Justin sound like actors having a job to do instead of friends, and I truly can’t imagine two people with less juice starting a show together. Why would you even do a podcast about the paranormal if you can’t handle the paranormal? Listen, I have podcasting experience. I did a moderately popular soccer (football for the ball knowers) for almost a decade, and let me tell you, the intricacies of podcasting are not interesting on screen. At least, how it is filmed here: we stare at someone with headphones, mildly react to spooky sounds, while maybe something’s happening in the background, or pan around a dark, empty room to pad the runtime.

The film is clearly pulling in tons of inspiration from modern horror, but taking what feels like the wrong lessons. It’s trying to riff on The Ring but saving the reveal until the end, losing all the tension that makes The Ring so effective as a film. It’s trying to pull off Sinister with its kids being murdered angle, but instead of old film of tragedies, we are gifted with Google images of nursery rhymes EXPLAINED images. Toss in some Hereditary about family guilt, and possibly a pro-life message about not murdering babies, I don’t know. I don’t think the film is smart enough to try to convey any message that extreme, because at least it would be interesting to write about the underlying, subliminal conservative messaging. Instead, I am treated to an empty-calorie horror film that does all it can to redeem itself in the final moments, a true Hail Mary of sound. When we reach the climax of the film and all hell breaks loose with demonic sounds and audio clips mixing, I can’t help but feel scared, seated in my Dolby screening. The audio overstimulation with some decent horror imagery worked on me briefly. I’m not sure if the Dolby sound was carrying the film too much. Still, the combination of direction and the culmination, I think, was effective enough that it will be enough for teenagers to recommend it for sleepovers for years to come. “Dude, it’s good, just wait for the ending, it’s so worth it,” you will hear coming from teenage Dorito’s smeared mouth and Mountain Dew breath. I am telling you as an adult man, it’s not worth it.

As harsh as I’ve been, I think the people working together on this should at least be proud of what they’ve done, given the low budget and how effective the final moments of the film are, which might be what most remember from it and nothing else. I can’t forgive bad podcasting and enduring another moment of “banter” between the two. Maybe if you are a fan of The Last Podcast on the Left or Lore podcasts, there might be something here for you. Still, for horror fans, I think this is another “Best Horror Movie Ever” marketing ploy to get butts into seats and make a buck from a distribution company whose horror track record is not great!

Final Score: 3/10

Written by Kevin J. Pettit