The Reel Review
The hosts of a paranormal activity podcast receive a mysterious e-mail with ten increasingly disturbing audio recordings of a man and his wife who unknowingly sings in her sleep. As their story unfolds, the podcasters realize that just by listening to the recordings they may have unleashed a demon. Nina Kiri stars in this horror/mystery.
The feature film debut of writer/director Ian Tuason blends the modern-day podcast with lots of old fashioned ho-hum demonic possession horror tropes that include inverted crosses, child-killing demons, and backwards audio messages. The only two characters we actually see in the film are Kiri, as Evy, and her dying, bedridden, non-communicative mother. Or is she?
The problem with the visually dull Undertone is that there isn’t much story or payoff – just lots of loud noises and tediously slow pans across the house. Only slightly better than the worst movie of 2023, Skinamarink (at least there is dialogue in this one), the film is a frustrating test of the viewer’s patience, as its rushed third act slides into a messy, unsatisfying ending that throws everything at the wall hoping something, anything, will stick. It doesn’t.
REEL FACTS
• Kris Holden-Ried was replaced by Adam DiMarco as the voice of the unseen podcaster after A24 acquired the film, which previously had been called The Undertone.
• Serbian-born Nina Kiri is best known for the role of Alma in The Handmaid’s Tale.
• Just like Skinamarink, Undertone was filmed in the writer/director’s childhood home in Toronto, Canada.
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