Read @ Joe’s

Title: Undertone (2026) Director: Ian Tuason Writer: Ian Tuason Studio: Slaterverse Pictures // A24 IMDb Plot: Evy Babic, a skeptical paranormal podcaster caring for her comatose mother, receives disturbing recordings tied to a folkloric threat, and every new file pulls her closer to fears she can no longer explain away. Joe Says: Undertone is not entirely caught by its own spell, but it is engrossing enough to keep you listening.

Undertone is a phenomenally shot, subtle horror movie with a distinctly modern nightmare flavor: a curse delivered through a podcast feed. And instead of spell books or cauldrons, all you need is a pair of headphones, an anonymous email, and the terrible decision to press play.

Written and directed by Ian Tuason, Undertone is a brilliantly cast, mostly one-woman show that creeps its way through the typical horror playbook: repeated nursery rhymes, flickering lights, ghostly movement in unfocused shadows, and noises that may or may not be coming from somewhere inside the house. Tuason is clearly interested in the slow burn; one where the mystery methodically unravels. Unfortunately most of it unravels in the feature’s dying minutes. Undertone may be thematically deep, but the shallow horror gets swept away in the undertow.

Nina Kiri delivers a tour-de-force performance as Evy, a young woman shut away while caring for her invalid mother. Her most meaningful connection to the outside world is The Undertone Podcast, a folk-horror show she co-hosts with Justin, voiced by Adam DiMarco and whose voice is perfectly suited to podcasting. And yes, Evy is the Scully to Justin’s Mulder: the skeptic rolling her eyes while the believer is already halfway down the paranormal rabbit hole.

While Evy tries to process the approaching death of her mother, she and Justin begin working through a series of audio files anonymously emailed to the podcast. Each recording becomes more disturbing than the last. Strange voices. Unsettling sounds. Nursery rhymes twisted into something rotten. And naturally, it is the final file that threatens to unleash hell on Earth.

Sorta.

Brilliantly shot by Graham Beasley, Undertone is a miasma of shadows and spotlights, unfocused blurs and slowly rotating camerawork. The house becomes a visual maze, with darkness lurking not simply in the corners but in the spaces between. 

Kiri carries the entire production with her solo performance. As the camera slips out of focus, so does Evy’s gaze, until it suddenly snaps back into clarity with an uneasy laugh. Her scenes with Justin are particularly impressive considering DiMarco never physically shares the frame. Their rapport feels lived-in, warm, and increasingly strained as the supernatural story tightens around them. Truly, Kiri’s work on this indie proves she got game for the big time.

And then there is the sound.

Creepy whispers pushed through bass reverb. Distant crying. Distorted voices. The ordinary noises of a house suddenly becoming deeply suspicious. Tuason understands that horror does not always need to show its hand. 

Yet beyond its style and performance, Undertone suffers from a problem familiar to many ambitious indie horror films: anticipation overshadows payoff. Sonic jolts can certainly be effective, but they are deployed often enough that their power begins to flatten. And once the narrative establishes its countdown toward something terrible, the clock is already working against the runtime.

Undertone spends too much time in the conjuring and not quite enough with the denouement.

The slapstick indie horror Deadstream, also built around a streamer confronting the supernatural, has almost the opposite problem, where the monster-filled conclusion makes up for the insufferable lead up. Undertone is more controlled and considerably more serious, but by holding back for so long, its final movement has to do a tremendous amount of narrative heavy lifting. 

Tuason is clearly reaching for something deeper than a simple haunted-podcast gimmick. Evy is confronting the certainty of death while contemplating bringing new life into her world. Her relationship with faith, her mother, and mortality all exist beneath the supernatural surface. The entity may be evil and ephemeral, but her friendship with Justin is tangible and true. There is a fascinating emotional knot here involving grief, caregiving, faith, and the terror of change.

The problem is that the supernatural needed to arrive a little earlier and work a little harder alongside those earthly themes. The ideas are present. The atmosphere is there. The performance is absolutely there. But Undertone holds its breath for so long that, by the time that exhale finally occurs, it’s not fresh air gulped in but exasperation. 

Undertone is not entirely caught by its own spell, but it is engrossing enough to keep you listening.

The ideas are deep. The atmosphere is hypnotic. The payoff needed to arrive with a little more bite.