Listen closely ... Undertone is excellent.

Ian Tuason’s Undertone is a masterclass in doing more in a horror film with less. The film, made for a reported $500,000, takes place in a single location and features only two on-screen actors, foregoeing intense gore and expensive special effects,  instead relying heavily on clever camera angles, the use of shadows, mirrors, and uncomfortable close-ups - in essence,  feeling like an old school classic horror film, while at the same time managing to feature modern themes: technology that connects yet isolates us; the lack of silence in our modern world (and the flipside, the fear of silence), and the podcast phenomenon. It is creative, innovative, and really scary.

            Evy (Nini Kiri), and her friend Justin (Adam DiMarco, never pictured in the film), are the hosts of “Undertone,” a paranormal “creepy stories” podcast, Evy serving as the resident skeptic while Justin is the true believer. One week, Justin brings a strange, cryptic email he received to the show, one that features ten short audio files, suggesting they listen to and try and unpack them for their listeners. The audio files, about a young couple named Mike and pregnant wife Jessa, at first seem to be about Mike attempting to record audio of Jessa’s recent talk in her sleep, quickly evolving into something much more mysterious and potentially malevolent.

            As advertised, the horror of film relies heavily on sound – primarily, the creepy, at times terrifying sound effects and children’s nursery rhymes on the audio files (if creepy nursery rhymes aren’t your thing, especially when they’re played backwards, then I’d suggest you get a refill on popcorn when they play them), but also white noise and other noises around the house. Evy, in essence, is homebound, taking care of her dying mother (Michele Duquet), and the use of shadows and intense quiet, with the occasional odd noise, punctuates Evy’s isolation and draws the viewer in with visual tricks as simple as her looking over her shoulder into darkened corners, as if sensing something is there. We get only glimpses of Evy and her mother’s lives prior to the events of the film, knowing only that her mother was very religious and there was some sort of rift between them. We also get only snippets of her relationship with her boyfriend, another faceless character whose relationship with Evy seems to be strained. As she and Justin unpack Mike and Jessa’s story, Evy, who has just learned she too is pregnant, seems to be drawn into whatever force is behind the audio files, and yet, the story is framed cleverly in a way that makes you question whether it is truly happening or if Evy is becoming unhinged as she takes care of her dying modern.

            The film draws on Catholic imagery, creepy woodcuts and illustrations of children, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean folklore, and parental anxiety, in short, all things we’ve seen a lot of before, but the execution and delivery are highly unique, making for a genuinely scary picture and reinforcing the idea that we are in a breakout era for horror films and fiction.