Sometimes the scariest things aren’t what we see, they’re what we hear. Or at least, what we think we hear.
In his fantastically creepy feature film debut undertone, Toronto writer/director Ian Tuason leans into the power of suggestion instead of monsters, crafting a slow-burn lo-fi horror that proves the imagination can be far more terrifying than anything on screen.
This review contains spoilers of the film undertone.
Evy (Nina Kiri) lives at home with her dying Mama (Michèle Duquet). She’s unhappy, sleep-deprived, and more than a little anxious. With her mother near-comatose and confined to bed upstairs, caregiver Evy’s weekly ritual involves putting on noise-cancelling headphones and calling her friend and paranormal podcast co-host Justin (Oakville-born Adam DiMarco) at 3 a.m. to chat about “all things creepy” on their show, “undertone”.
“Creepy” is certainly the tone here, as the film relies on more than jump scares or ghosts to unnerve its audience.
It’s a simple concept with even simpler execution: Tuason filmed the entire story in his childhood home in Toronto’s Rexdale neighbourhood. With some floral wallpaper and Virgin Mary statues added for the perfect “old lady” aesthetic, the space instantly tells us everything we need to know about what kind of household Evy grew up in. She and Mama are the only characters we see, and well, Mama isn’t much of a talker. For most of the film’s taut 93-minute runtime, Kiri sits at the dining room table, headphones on and laptop open, as the story slowly closes in around her.
For this week’s podcast episode, the ever-eager paranormal believer Justin brings a series of 10 mysterious audio recordings that were anonymously emailed to him. Evy, the show’s self-proclaimed “in-house skeptic”, pushes for scientific explanations of the strange things they discuss, though she still insists she’s “open-minded” when it comes to the supernatural.
Listening to the files one by one during their podcast recording, the story behind them unfolds. They follow a young married couple, Jessa (Keana Lyn Bastidas) and Mike (Jeff Yung). As a fun experiment, Mike records his pregnant wife Jessa, who talks in her sleep. It begins innocently – and creepily – enough, with Jessa singing children’s nursery rhymes while asleep. But with each new recording, things only get weirder as the film ups the creepy factor.
Hinging on Kiri’s powerhouse performance, undertone unfolds almost entirely through sound, where even moments of silence are loaded with tension and unease. This found-footage-style horror is completely aural, immersing viewers in the sensory experience alongside Evy. All other characters, including Justin, Mike, and Jessa, are voice-only performances, with the actors never seen on screen. Instead, the film relies on the banter between podcast co-hosts and the nightmare bedtime story vibe of Mike and Jessa’s recordings to drive undertone forward. Kiri carries much of the film’s emotional weight, dominating every frame of the movie as she, DiMarco, and Tuason tease out fear purely through sound.
What begins in Evy’s headphones soon bleeds into her everyday life in unsettling ways. The Catholic icons Mama finds comforting and innocent-sounding nursery rhymes take on terrifying, seemingly supernatural new meanings, as the film builds towards an explosive climax that goes beyond just what we hear.
Though undertone marks his debut feature, Tuason started his career in virtual reality horror-inspired shorts and using immersive sound design. His expertise in creating soundscapes is evident here in the film’s richly layered atmosphere. Also evident is the theme of being a caregiver and grief, which the director mined from his personal life. Following the terminal illness diagnosis of both his parents, Tuason found himself in his childhood home caring for them, much like Evy.
It’s easy to be excited about what Tuason does next – especially after he was tapped to direct the next installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise. Not bad for a filmmaker who went from writing a script in his Rexdale basement to landing a major Hollywood horror franchise.
With its meticulous sound design, undertone is truly an experience meant to be seen – and heard – in a theatre.
undertone is now playing in cinemas across the GTA.
