Ian Tuason’s indie horror film, Undertone, has a good title and a good idea. Inside the clever tactic of using channeled sound to encompass an audience in a dark arena of dread and fear, there is an interesting story of a lone woman uncovering a terrifying secret.
Evy (Nina Kiri) has moved back to her family’s religious iconography-filled home to take care of her dying mother (Michèle Duquet). Most of her time is taken up by trying to keep her bedridden, comatose mother comfortable while simultaneously preventing herself from falling into depression and sadness. Evy is the co-host of a paranormal podcast titled, The Undertone Project. Along with her on-air partner, Justin (Adam DiMarco, in a voice-only role), the show covers an array of topics regarding the supernatural. Evy is the skeptic who is always ready to debunk stories of ghosts, demonic possession, and creepy urban legends. Justin is the one who believes the tales their show explores and researches each one in the hope of proving there is a world beyond our own.
Director Tuason and cinematographer Graham Beasley use the darkness that surrounds Evy to set an unnerving tone. While Evy sits at the dining room table to record the podcast, the silences become terror. Turning off every light, Evy blankets herself in the house’s eerie blackness. Perhaps she is challenging herself or maybe the dark does not bother her. The filmmakers spend a lot of Undertone’s first half watching Evy in front of her computer. A lot of time. A. Lot. Of. Time.
There is nothing wrong with a film embracing its silences. Many filmmakers (Bergman, Antonioni, etc) have made Art out of finding profundity in the quiet. The horror genre is trickier. Proper mood is vital to the success of any creeper. There must be something within the silence that carries an audience to the scares. To be fair to the filmmakers, Undertone is a one woman show. Evy is the only character (save for a few scenes of her comatose mom) who is on screen for the film’s entirety. For a very short time, the silence is gripping, as the anticipation of “things to come” fuels interest. As the director lures his audience in with the promise of disturbing horror scares, viewers are ready for a unique and spooky thrill-ride.
The director and his sound department work hard to unnerve their audience, as one night, the two hosts are recording a show where Justin reveals 10 audio files sent to them by an anonymous listener. Each recording reveals a couple who are being haunted. The boyfriend began recording their nights due to his partner’s snoring, but began to capture something far more sinister. Initially, it seems to be ghosts. As the recordings continue, it is revealed the couple is being terrorized by a demon. How very Paranormal Activity.
As Evy reacts to what she hears and Justin tries to get to the bottom of it all, Undertone is hampered by an air of phoniness. Adam Dimarco sounds as if he is seeing from the script for the first time. There is almost no emotion to his line readings, rendering Justin’s banter with Evy unconvincing.
Nina Kiri does fine, but her performance fails to rise above a wide-eyed, “Hey, I’m creeped out.” The script tries to flesh out Evy’s backstory by giving her a soon-to-be-ex boyfriend, a dark past, and a “big reveal” regarding her future. Nothing is explored with any interest and every new dramatic layer goes nowhere. The character is further hindered by silly reactions to the terrors forming around her. As Evy becomes aware that something may be haunting her house, she refuses to turn any lights on. It is redundant to point out ridiculous character actions in horror movies. At this stage, does any true horror fan scream to the screen, “Why are they walking toward the noise?” The way Tuason designs Evy, to argue the character would want to turn on every light in the house is validated.
The demon has a name, Abyzou. How very “Pazuzu”; the demon from William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. The reason for its motivation won’t be revealed here, but the explanation is clunky and uninteresting.
As interest gives way to boredom, and eventual absurdity, Ian Tuason’s screenplay finds nothing interesting to do with its premise nor with the much-heralded sound design; the crux of the entire project. Once the final act begins and the sound mix kicks in, it is shockingly uneventful.
Undertone makes a lot of noise, and that’s about it.
Undertone
Written and Directed by Ian Tuason
Starring Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet
R, 93 Minutes, A24, Black fawn Films
