director: ian tuason
cast: nina kiri, adam dimarco
screenplay: ian tuason
94 mins. rated r for language.

I keep a notepad with me when I see a movie, just for quick little thoughts. Many critics do this, when you see as many releases as I do, you want to make sure that you have the full breadth of thoughts on the film, but I can always tell the mark of an immersive film if I just never put a single thing down on the notepad. Thus is the case with undertone, the newest a24 horror film. The experience of seeing undertone in a theater full of people and a great sound system is something special, even if I don’t the movie itself is all that strong.

Evy Babic (nina kiri, geek charming) runs the undertone podcast, a horror audio show where she and co-host justin (adam dimarco, star trek: beyond) listen to unusual audio files and dive into the potential of the supernatural in the natural world. Evy, being the skeptic, is quick to dismiss justin’s excitement, and their show has seen some success. At the same time, she’s caring for her mother in her final days of hospice. When they receive an email with ten audio files, they decide to make it their next episode, but as they dive deeper into the files, following two people experiencing a potential possession, evy notices that some similarities with things happening in her home, but is it mere coincidence, or are the audio elements having a real-world effect on her?

Undertone is an experience of highs and lows. From the outset, the film asks a lot of its viewers. It’s a very slow burn, and most of the first half is setting things in motion, testing my patience. There is a turn, however, in the back half of the film where I realized the hair on my arms standing on end and I came to the understanding that I was completely immersed. The payoff in the final twenty minutes mostly makes good on the promises the film and director Ian tuason have made as the narrative lurches on. That being said, I think it will only be truly effective for those that watch with a great sound system in place. The Dolby Cinema I was in made for incredible experience, but I can’t honestly see the effectiveness of watching at home in a few months when undertone is available for streaming. It’s all speculation, but I’d say if the idea of undertone interests you, don’t wait until streaming; see it ASAP.

We’re mostly following Evy, and Nina Kiri holds attention nicely. Her performance is doing a lot of heavy-lifting, but I found that I never really considered how much of the film is her just having a conversation with an unseen justin. Kiri channels some of the greats in her portrayal of evy, partly due to the relatable nature of the skeptic and the real world emotional journey she is on with her ailing mother.

Tuason directs the narrative nicely, though his screenplay stumbles in a few places, and could’ve used a polishing up and story work. For starters, he gives evy a terrible character moment that makes her unnecessarily unlikable and frustrating when she leaves her near-death mother alone to go to a party. It comes out of left-field and doesn’t feel natural to the evy we’ve been introduced to, and it is something that didn’t need to happen, as the subplot involving a strained relationship with her boyfriend doesn’t ever really amount to much. Beyond that, tuason chooses to set the narrative across multiple days, and I think it loses some of the tension as each recording session comes to an end. Setting the story in one night would’ve propelled some of the slower build forward more successfully, as each time she sets down the headphones, the film halts again.

All this is to say that undertone is messy and inconsistent, but I can’t deny the power of its second half. I was enthralled as the film built to its crescendo, and the expert sound design was both jarring and exciting in a way many horror films would aspire to. As before, I have no idea how this is going to play in a home setting with slower burn and given the lack of surround sound in many homes. If undertone seems like you’re thing, take the trip to the cinema and give it a go; the experience of being in a crowded play immersed together is perfect for a film like this.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe