In Undertone, a podcaster who dabbles in scary stories gets trapped in one herself, but by the time she actually figures it out, it may be too late. Relying heavily on mood, atmosphere, slow-panning camerawork, and creepy sounds, Undertone is an effectively unnerving piece of horror—even if you can’t shake the feeling that you’ve seen (heard?) this all before.
Best described as Paranormal Activity meets Blair Witch Project but for blind people, Undertone works largely thanks to the craft of director Ian Tuason and sound designer David Gertsman. Say what you will about the story, Undertone is a movie best appreciated with a killer surround sound system cranked up to the ceiling (I saw it at a pounding Dolby theater). Tuason lets your brain do much of the work, its synapses working overtime to fill in the gaps, to fulfill the imagination—there has to be something in the background of this long, lingering shot, right? The movie is going to make me jump out of my seat in just a minute, right? Tuason immerses the audience in a suspenseful, auditory tale of horror and anguish.
In the moment, Undertone works splendidly. Writing this review a few days later, I’m not as enamored with it as I was when I first walked out of the theater. The story really does feel like we are watching another round of Paranormal Activity (side note: Tuason’s next project is to revive a certain franchise known as… Paranormal Activity), though most of the scares (if you can call them that) are handled through sound versus glimpses of something evil. Frustratingly, Evy (Nina Kiri) doesn’t even realize she is in a horror movie until the very end—even though she is pretty much the only one on screen, she’s barely an observer in her own story.
Undertone too is a movie where the journey is more powerful than the destination. Tuason, who also wrote the screenplay, wraps things up in exactly the way you’d assume—because we’ve seen this kind of ending before. It even has some Blair Witch vibes, albeit with no shaky cam or snot closeups. The climax is fine but hardly startling for a seasoned horror viewer.
Criticisms aside, on a first watch Undertone dials up the creepy factor. What sets the movie apart from others is its reliance on sound—yes, most good horror movies need strong sound editing—Tuason and Gertsman stir up a potion that seeps into your bones and shakes them viciously. There was simply an opportunity to push this one further than it goes, an opportunity left out of reach.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.