Undertone: Movie Review

Cast: Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michele Duquet
Director: Ian Tuason

The horror movie has done the idea of possessed and cursed media before.

From the likes of The Ring through to Pipes in the infamous live, spoof BBC TV drama Ghostwatch, the idea's not a new one.

But the upcoming Paranormal Activity 8 director Ian Tuason's deeply rich sound-immersive undertone hits a different note, taking on the idea of a podcast where something's not right.

Nina Kiri plays Evy, one half of a self-confessed "creepy stuff" podcast. Lodged in with her dying mother, and recording at the hour of 3am daily with her compadre Justin (DiMarco, in voice only), the pair investigate paranormal activity and tales of the weird.

Distinctly sceptical, Evy finds herself pushed to the limit when Justin offers up a series of ten recordings sent anonymously to their undertone podcast, which seem to be unexplainable. As Evy begins to investigate further, strange things begin to happen in the house, in her life and in her mind - but terrified or otherwise, she decides to push on...

When it comes to the ending of undertone, it's likely to be as polarising as that first ending of The Blair Witch Project - but what's clearer in the gradual build-up of this one-location movie are the tropes of the genre, the incredible soundscapes that Tuason develops and the committed performance of Kiri as the girl on the edge, stuck between grief and fear.

undertone isn't exactly subtle in some of its sign-posting - recording a creepy podcast at 3am, using Google searches to expose the mythology and lore of what the messages reveal and a last-minute twist is a little too obvious to anyone really paying even the most cursory attention to what's unfolding.

But what is exceptional about it is the way it immerses you in the world. From the rattle of the breathing of Evy's mother to the ticking of the clock, to the way noise-cancelling headphones remove Evy from the world around her. It's an incredible sonic atmosphere which keeps on loading the dice and building the suspense (even if a few cursory jump scares creep in to stave off the monotony of little visually happening).

Perhaps that's the key here though - while undertone itself doesn't redefine the genre and there's a lot of exposition in the dialogue in imagery, it's incredibly effective at building a sense of foreboding and a tension that initially seems unwarranted.