Undertone Tries to Scare With Sound But Comes Up Silent
A podcaster investigates eerie audio files in Ian Tuason’s supernatural thriller, but the sound-driven suspense barely delivers.
Right on time for Hollywood’s Oscar night celebration of some of the best films of last year, theaters this weekend welcome a film certain to be remembered as one of the worst of this year: the acutely underwhelming, audio-files-from-hell chiller undertone.
The supernatural horror story from writer-director Ian Tuason does have its moments. Like the moment, about 90 minutes in, when, at a seemingly random point, the movie just ends. The abrupt cut to credits prompted a wave of groans, gasps, and wry chuckles from the audience at my screening, all of us fairly unanimous in the collective expression of “Was that it?”
The film’s heroine, plucky podcaster Evy (Nina Kiri), spends most of the running time in a similar state of thwarted anticipation. Listening closely to mysterious audio files that landed in the inbox of her podcast partner Justin (voiced by Adam DiMarco), she finds, more often than not, that she can’t hear anything especially strange.
You won’t either. Yet, there’s Justin on the other end of the line, exclaiming in disbelief, “Did you hear it?! Ohmigod! Play it again!”
The audio files aren’t actually from the netherworld, as far as the podcasters know. They were forwarded to Justin anonymously by someone who listens to their show, The Undertone, where the two co-hosts talk “all things creepy.”
That podcast description sounds about as vague as what turns up in the audio files, ten in all, recordings apparently made by a married couple, Jessa (voiced by Keana Lyn Bastidas) and Mike (voiced by Jeff Yung). From what we can hear, Mike aims to prove with the recordings that Jessa talks in her sleep, which she laughingly denies.
She won’t be laughing long. Over the course of ten nights and ten recordings, Mike discovers, much to his horror, that something more disturbing is going on while Jessa sleeps. Suffice it to say, at least one other voice can be heard in the recordings. Who is it, what do they want, and what are they saying? “I can’t believe you didn’t hear it!” Simmer down, Justin.
Evy desperately would like to hear whatever is supposedly happening to Mike and Jessa. Alone in a big, rambling old house with her comatose Mama (Michèle Duquet) upstairs wheezing away in her bed, she’s vulnerable and emotionally fragile, but remains bravely determined to listen to every file.
Hence, undertone is largely a film about listening intently for sounds of “all things creepy,” and, for the most part, not hearing anything discernibly creepy at all, outside of Mike recording his wife in her sleep.
Until, following an appropriate interval of suspense — and many, many closeups of Evy leaning in closer to her laptop to listen, even though she’s wearing headphones — she and Justin unmistakably hear something that scares the bejeezus out of them.
These developments potentially could disturb viewers, too, although anyone who’s seen a Paranormal Activity movie might, more likely, hold out hope for an added twist, or for the plot push beyond the obvious. But all undertone really adds to the Paranormal Activity formula is taking away the visual element of a horror franchise built around “found” video.
The film still relies on imagery to create suspense, constantly framing the empty, shadowy space around Evy. Also, the most arresting onscreen moment, by far, involves an evil video that plays on its own. But sound is the movie’s main medium.
Focusing instead on storytelling through audio yields a rich listening experience, thanks to solid sound design. Innocent, everyday noises, like a piercing kettle whistle or a persistent ringtone, take on a sinister air, punctuated by stabs of score. And the Mike and Jessa recordings acquire their own intriguing atmosphere. The film just doesn’t pay it off with anything scary.
Alone onscreen for most of the movie, Kiri, perhaps best known as Alma on The Handmaid’s Tale, carries the emotional weight of Evy’s circumstances as a stressed caregiver experiencing relationship woes, but even she doesn’t seem frightened enough to do anything but listen and keep listening.
To Tuason’s credit, the movie forces its audience to listen. At times, one could hear a pin drop in the theater, the audience edging closer to being scared out of silence. Then, nothing, the movie ends, and the audience erupts in a chorus of “What?” That’s the sound I’ll remember.
undertone (★☆☆☆☆) is rated R and playing in theaters nationwide. Visit fandango.com.
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