21/04/26

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Undertone has been in the cinemas for a week now, but it’s been mostly restricted to a series of late-night showings – and I prefer to do my movie-watching in the daytime. Finally, here’s a rare chance to see it at 12pm and I’m glad to have the opportunity. Written and directed by Ian Tuason, this stripped-back Canadian chiller has been cleverly billed as ‘the scariest film you’ll ever hear’ and certainly what seeps into an audience’s ears is every bit as important as what they actually see onscreen.

Evy (Nina Kiri) is going through a difficult time. She’s trapped in her mother’s house in Toronto, craving alcohol and trying to deal with the discovery that she’s pregnant. Meanwhile, her mother (played by Michéle Duquet) lies in her upstairs bedroom in a comatose condition, nearing the end of her life. Luckily Evy has The Undertone Podcast to think about, which she records and presents with her friend, Justin (voiced by Adam DiMarco), who is based far away in New York. The series is devoted to all things creepy – though Evy, despite being raised a Catholic, is a staunch disbeliever in the supernatural.

Justin reveals that he’s recently received a series of ten audio files from a man called Mike. They feature his wife, Jessa, who has started talking (and sometimes singing) in her sleep. The recordings all feature unsettling details and inexplicable sounds – especially when played in reverse – and, as the podcasters work their way through them, so Evy’s convictions start to crumble…

Made for just $50,000, Undertone has grossed millions in the USA and it’s easy to see why it has notched up yet another win for production company A24, who seem to have an uncanny nose for quality horror projects.

Set entirely in one house, the film starts with a series of tiny unsettling details – a light left on, a tap left running… but, as the story steadily unfolds, so these details become more overt, more sinister, until a sense of palpable dread has me in its tenacious grip. I listen intently to every garbled soundscape that pulses from the cinema’s Dolby speakers. (Unless you have an incredibly sophisticated sound system at home, don’t leave this one for streaming.) Furthermore, Undertone subverts all the usual clichés of the genre. Moments that appear to be building towards an inevitable jump-scare never come to fruition, Tuason preferring to leave viewers in a constant state of anxiety.

As the film’s final scenes build to an almost unbearable tension, I actually find myself holding my breath… and that’s when I’m hit by a revelation that I really don’t see coming. Undertone is an ingenious little movie that makes a big impact, but it’s definitely not for the faint-hearted.

4.4 stars

Philip Caveney