At the Toronto premiere of undertone, a film billed as “the scariest movie you’ll ever hear” in a savvy piece of marketing, there was palpable excitement when Filipino Canadian filmmaker Ian Tuason mentioned that his next film would be a new reimagining of the Paranormal Activity franchise. Observing Tuason’s smartly crafted audio creeper, it feels like a natural progression to travel from indie chiller to blockbuster level scares. Both films keep audiences on the edge of their seats not through grotesque gore, but by exploiting the link between anticipation and dread.
The image one conjures up in your own mind is often far more unsettling than the entity that one actually sees. Understanding that sound can be its own type of mental pencil crayon, one that use our associations with specific noises to colour in the contours of our imagination’s illustration, Tauson draws a haunting portrait that brings his character’s inner fears to life.
undertone introduces audiences to Evy (Nina Kira, hot off her blistering performance in the military drama Out Standing), a podcaster who is the last person one would expect to be rattled by things that go bump in the night. A hardcore skeptic, she co-hosts a show all about strange phenomena with her U.K. based pal Justin (Adam DiMarco), a fan of urban legends, Evy heads to her mom’s dining room table each week just before 3 AM to debunk the latest oddity Justin presents the listeners with.
More than a chance to have a weekly catchup with her good friend, who the audience only hear but never sees, the show provides a momentary balm from the pain of her daily life. Her mother (Michèle Duquet), a devout Catholic, is terminally ill and has stopped eating. Bedridden and seemingly unable to talk, her mother’s distressed breaths are her only form of communicate. Complicating matters further is the fact that Evy begins displaying signs of morning sickness and is less than excited by the prospects of having a child with her inconsiderate boyfriend Darren (Ryan Turner).
Literally blocking the world out when she puts on her podcasting headphones, the way Tuason and crew play with sound is mesmerizing to behold, Evy is unprepared for the unnerving mysteries that their latest episodes are about to embark on. Prompted by a cryptic email from a fan, featuring 10 audio files, Justin is eager to get Evy’s reactions to the strange recordings live on air. What begins as a boyfriend, Mike (Jeff Yung), innocently recording his partner, Jessa (Keanan Lyn Bastidas), to prove she talks in her sleep, becomes increasingly more disturbing with each new file they open.
As they work their way through all 10 files, Evy begins to notice that things in the recordings are eerily starting to mirror her own life.
Pulling audiences into its sinister web one audio file at a time, undertone gets under the viewer’s skin by placing them in Evy’s shoes. Much like the podcaster, most of the information the viewer consumes in the film comes from what they hear. While Tuason displays plenty of visual flare, albeit subtly, through his camera movements, the tension is built off of what is being told to Evy and the audience.
As Evy and her mother are the only characters who appear on screen, Tuason leaves it to the audiences’ own imagination to fill in the missing pieces. The result is effective as, based on the information they are being fed, what the viewer conjures in their mind play off their own fears. They eventually feel as if they are adding additional elements to the script that weren’t there: “Did I just see movement in the reflection of cabinet class door?” “I swore I saw someone inside the bathroom door.”
All this allows Tuason to weave in reflections on the grief, the stresses of being a caregiver, the dark origins of nursery rhymes, and pressures of motherhood.
Never diving too deeply into anyone topic, undertone floats comfortably on the waters of guilt inducing religious iconography and a soundscape that make one feel as if they are trapped within the constricted confines of Evy’s headphones.
The narrow margins in which the film operates might have some bumping up against the wall of distraction more than they would like. Tuason’s film wears a lot of its inspirations, ranging from The Babadook to Hereditary and more on its sleeve. While his distinct vision remains at the forefront, the noticeable influences can cause the mind to wander, as if searching to find them all, especially considering his choice to go through each of the 10 files. Similar to the use of “chapters” in films, knowing that there are still more files to go does test the patience of the audience at times. It inadvertently makes Tuason’s brisk film feel unnecessary drawn out in spurts.
In the hands of a less talented director, these disruptions might have impacted the over all sense of fear that the horror creates. However, Tuason’s film keeps is creepy hands firmly clutched on the viewer’s arm.
A sonic feast of chills, undertone is an intriguing and well-crafted horror that announces Tuason as a filmmaker who deserves our attention.
