‘Undertone’ Needs to be Heard to be Understood

What’s even scarier than body horror, monsters or true crime?

A podcast!

In his directorial debut, Ian Tuason scraps gratuitous gore and ghostly conventions characteristic of popular haunting movies in exchange for subtly, in the understated — yet terrifying — “Undertone.”

After receiving an anonymous email containing 10 mysterious audio files, the line between reality and the otherworldly begins to blur for paranormal podcast co-hosts Evy (Nina Kiri) and Justin (Adam DiMarco). 

The eponymous podcast — reminiscent of “Buzzfeed Unsolved” — is just one of the film’s many homages to online horror culture, such as Kiri’s (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Heretics”)  character’s extensive use of Wikipedia for research or constant Premiere Pro cameos showing the editing of episodes. 

While the duo’s on-air personalities were initially constructed to contradict one another — Justin, a whole-hearted believer in the metaphysical, versus Evy, a staunch denier grounded in reality — as more and more peculiar phenomena begin to manifest in her life, Evy succumbs to the conspiracy. 

The film’s greatest asset is its sound design, headed by David Gertsman. From the soft crackle of telephonic feedback to the frantic scribbling of a pen against paper, each crest and trough of the sound level is meticulously placed.

Featuring a scant score, the emptiness between words lets the horror of acoustic stillness wash over the viewer.

“Don’t be afraid of the dark, be afraid of the silence” is repeated throughout the film, like a stomach-churning, ecclesiastical chant.

Even though the minimal aural palette works to the film’s advantage, its similarly curt runtime doesn’t. With a runtime less than 90 minutes, the first three acts of the movie drag, with overly lengthy exposition and some more than on-the-nose religious imagery — it would’ve been less subtle had they smacked viewers with a crucifix. 

Aside from the podcast, Evy is tasked with caring for her mother — only referred to as Mama — in hospice as she lies in a comatose state, slowly decaying until her inevitable death. As the investigation into the audio files and her mother’s condition worsen, Evy’s physical and mental world collapses, à la “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” 

Consequently, much of the action and horror aesthetics — to their credit, a master class in cacophony — are crammed into the last 15 minutes, like Tuason suddenly remembering he was working with top-tier sound designers.

Confined within the four walls of Evy’s mother’s house, the sheer supernatural and simultaneously mundane atmosphere occupies every frame of “Undertone.” 

In fact, the majority of the shots are various renditions of the same scene, employing creative camera angles to give the audience a comprehensive sense of the dining room. Close-ups reveal every wrinkle on Evy’s face, every pixel on her MacBook and every scratch on the table’s wood grain. 

The isolation within the film’s limited space is further emphasized through the size of its on-screen cast — two. 

Only Evy and her mother physically appear, the rest of the cast are only present through off-screen dialogue. Even though Evy’s mother never utters a word, their relationship — or lack thereof — is what holds the film together.

Essentially a one-woman show, Kiri’s portrayal of a woman attempting to solve a mystery, despite not being able to figure out her own life, isn’t grating, nor is it unbearably painful — it presents the unforgettable truth that sometimes to find the solution, one has to delve into the dark. 

For many auditory projects, they’re best experienced through headphones — not “Undertone.”

For the full experience, “Undertone” must be consumed through the deafening speakers of a movie theater, the beating of your heart matching the intensity of the auditorium-shaking bass. 

“Undertone” is in theaters now.