Undertone ★★★

Released: 10 April 2026

Director: Ian Tuason

Starring: Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco

Created on a shoestring budget of just $500,000 and directed by first-timer Ian Tuason, Undertone is the latest horror to draw high praise from early viewers, calling it one of the scariest movies in recent memory. As the title suggests, Undertone creates most of its scares via audio, as it follows the host of a popular paranormal podcast uncovering a mysterious set of recordings. The further Evy (Nina Kiri) and co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco) dive into these recordings, the more terrifying and mysterious they become, haunting Evy as she deals with nightmares and hardship of her own. With a strong central performance and effective scares, Undertone utilises its modest budget to its highest potential. Not every element comes together perfectly, but it’s certainly a fresh and unique experience.

Who knew nursery rhymes being played backwards could be so terrifying? Just one of the auditory methods Undertone takes on to scare its viewers – or listeners – and it undeniably works. Searching for hidden messaging within popular rhymes and deciphering background whisperings in audio files makes for quite a thrilling watch, especially when our podcasters are getting more creeped out the further the film progresses. The fear of the unknown has rarely been so prominent, as it’s hard to know what’s coming next on the following tape, what the voices are talking about and most importantly, whether danger is around the corner. The cinematography increases this fear factor tenfold, panning round the room leaving us with the expectation of a ghostly figure or other form of jump scare to emerge. The camera also hooks onto main character Evy often, forcing us to experience these horrifying sounds alongside her. Through both nifty camerawork and clever utilisation of the single location of a simple house, a gripping viewing experience is created that keeps you on tenterhooks of anticipation. Pairing these scares with an overall mystery makes things effective, as just like our podcasters, we’re hooked on these audio clips and just need to know the outcome. This mystery has a good pay off, too – there’s plenty of deep thematic strands and spooky lore to uncover. It may just relate to our characters more than they expected.

If you watched the trailer and expected the entirety of the 94-minute run-time to be a live podcast recording, you’d be mistaken. Undertone has much more up its sleeve than just dialogue between its co-hosts. Lead character Evy is well developed, as the script cleverly gives us enough information to help us care for the outcome of her journey. Looking after her dying Mother who is bed bound upstairs adds to Evy’s isolation and fear, as her lack of sleep and intense sadness makes listening to those recordings even more jumbled and confusing. Her romantic relationship also seems to be on the verge of breakdown, and some recent personal news that she has to think over makes this even trickier. We’re given quite a complex character in Evy, who is played well by Nina Kiri (Fingernails). At the other end of the microphone is co-host Justin, played by Adam DiMarco (Something Very Bad is Going to Happen). He may not be as fleshed out as Evy, but his voice performance is solid – and he’s all she has. Not only do we have the eerie podcast recording and expectation of Evy’s Mama’s death looming over us, but we have plenty of visual scares, too. When watching Undertone, it’s advised to look in every corner of the room as the camera pans around.

Undertone isn’t quite a home run, though it comes scarily close. Those who prefer their horror movies pacier or more action-packed may feel let down by this one. It’s a slow affair, revealing information and scares to its audience in small, intricate pieces. With ten tapes to listen to that need to fill out the entire feature length film, at times it feels like speeding up this process would make for a more cohesive watch. When our podcasters aren’t listening to the recordings and creating their show, there is plenty of other elements to sink your teeth into, but the real intrigue is within those mystery recordings. Whenever the focus is away from Evy and Justin working together, it’s understandable that entertainment value and engagement may falter. Maybe narrowing down its elements to focus solely on that may deliver a stronger ability to keep viewers hooked. The final theme and message that the film lands on is certainly divisive too, with both a sense of ambiguity and an impactful, controversial topic left looming over you.

Masterfully using empty space, creepy sound design and the fear of the unknown to tell its story, Undertone is an experience that horror fans should be eager to check out. It takes a slower pace than most and requires your patience and attention, but has enough eerie scares, talent within the performances and intrigue within the mystery to keep you invested.