Taking a page from\u00a0Paranormal Activity, this microbudget horror film takes place in a single location and tries to do for podcasts what that movie did for found footage. It follows Evie (Nina Kiri), a young woman taking care of her terminally ill mother, whose only real refuge is the podcast she hosts with her friend Justin (an unseen Adam DiMarco). Kiri is the only person on screen for the majority of the film, with only her comatose mother (Mich\u00e8le Duquet) also shown.<\/p>\n
The two host a paranormal podcast where they examine viral phenomena, with Evie the skeptic to Justin\u2019s believer. They receive an email containing ten audio recordings featuring a married couple, Mike and Jessa, with the latter talking in her sleep. She seems to be saying things backwards, and as they listen, Evie starts to discover hidden messages related to classic nursery rhymes like \u201cBaa Baa Black Sheep\u201d and \u201cRock-a-bye Baby,\u201d which reveal a deep mythology involving demonic possession and human sacrifice.<\/p>\n
Of course, this being a movie shot for $500k, all of this is left to the imagination, with Evie listening to increasingly disturbing recordings that seem to be evoking a demonic entity. If Evie had ever seen a horror movie, she and Justin would have stopped listening to these messages as soon as weird things started happening\u2014like Evie\u2019s comatose mother somehow leaving religious icons around the home. But then again, we wouldn\u2019t have a movie.<\/p>\n
Undertone\u00a0is a tough one to review, as I didn\u2019t jive with the premise or style at all, but I can also respect that a certain audience may find this really spooky and hip. To me, it played out as eighty minutes of build-up, followed by ten minutes of belated payoff. The sound design is well done, and director Ian Tuason deserves credit for having made a microbudget movie that connected with a lot of people, but it\u2019s nothing you haven\u2019t seen before\u2014just done on a much lower scale.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t help that Nina Kiri\u2019s Evie isn\u2019t given much of a personality, with us learning only a scant few things about her. Mostly, she just listens to the weird recordings and doesn\u2019t make much more of an impression than the unseen Justin. Kiri\u2019s performance is fine; she just isn\u2019t given much to work with beyond the podcast gimmick, with the real focus of the movie being the creepy audio design featured on the recordings\u2014which I\u2019ll admit is impressive.<\/p>\n
In the end,\u00a0Undertone\u00a0may well find an appreciative young audience, but veteran horror fans will likely be like me, left scratching their heads over what exactly A24 saw in it. It\u2019s familiar and often tedious, but respect is due to all involved for the effort. Were it given a more modest build-up, it might have seemed like an interesting experiment, but given how A24 is positioning it,\u00a0Undertone\u00a0just feels like a whole lot of hype.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/undertone-movie-1024x538.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"JoBlo](\"https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/themes\/face3-joblo\/assets\/images\/joblo-logo-icon-2025.svg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
\n Subscribe to our weekly newsletter\n <\/p>\n