Crew
Director/Screenplay – Ian Tuason, Producers – Cody Calahan & Dan Slater, Photography – Graham Beasley, Music – Shanika Lewis-Waddell, Visual Effects Supervisor – Brian Hamilton, Production Design – Mercedes Coyle. Production Company – Spooky Pictures/Kino/Dimension Gate/Black Fawn Films/Slater Verse.
Cast
Nina Kiri (Evangeline ‘Evie’ Babic), Adam DiMarco (Voice of Justin Manuel), Michelle Duquet (Mama), Keana Lyn Bastidas (Voice of Jessa), Jeff Yung (Voice of Mike), Ryan Turner (Voice of Darren), Ari Miller (Voice of Dr. Ram)
Plot
Evie Babic tends her dying mother. Evie’s one anchor of sanity during this is Undertone, a podcast she co-hosts with Justin Manuel, that deals with the supernatural. Justin airs a series of audio recordings that have been sent to him by Mike who has taped his girlfriend Jessa while she is sleeping. In these, Jessa speaks in strange voices, sings children’s songs in reverse, and appears to display the symptoms of possession.
Undertone was a feature-length directorial debut for Canadian director Ian Tuason. The film comes with quite an impressive backing of talent, including producer Roy Lee and Canada’s Black Fawn production company, which has been behind a number of genre works, including Antisocial (2013) from Cody Calahan, who also produces here. The film was released by the US A24 releasing chain, which has been an active force in independent films in recent years. On the basis of this one film, Ian Tuason has been hired as the director of a new Paranormal Activity sequel.
The fascinating thing about Undertone is that is almost entirely relayed by audio – Ian Tuason had originally intended it as a radio play. There are only two actors on screen – Nina Kiri and Michelle Duquet as her dying mother. The rest of the actors listed above are all voice parts only and come via audio recordings, the podcast or phone. There are few only a few films that have been adventurous enough to do something like this – one of these was the previous Canadian horror film Pontypool (2008) set in a radio station, and the Australian Monolith (2022), which was also set around a podcast.
Ian Tuason is careful about building atmosphere. Undertone is slow, methodical. The film is almost entirely contained within about three rooms of an ordinary suburban house and only once ventures out beyond that. Everything that happens is kept within the realm of The Ambiguously Fantastic where we are not certain if anything did happen or not.
Ian Tuason does some amazing things with the soundtrack, which is alive with sinister recordings of the couple, nursery rhymes and ones sung in reverse, deep voices, children singing and the like. The relaying of all of this via audio is quite spooky. It is only a few scenes where the film moves beyond audio jumps – lights unexpectedly turning on, bulbs blowing, the possible white shape of the mother standing in the background. Everything is left ambiguous and up to interpretation.
Trailer here