With this year’s Academy Awards having just wrapped up, it might seem a little early to begin discussing who should be nominated next year, but a few films have already surfaced that deserve some consideration. Emerald Fennel’s “Wuthering Heights” has some fantastic costumes, production design, music, and cinematography. Pixar’s Hoppers absolutely belongs in the Animated Feature Film race. And having now experienced Undertone, it feels like it would be a crime for it to miss out on a nomination for Best Sound, as it uses audio effects to create a horror experience unlike much else you’ve seen (or heard) before.
Evy (Nina Kiri) has returned home to tend to her sick mother (Michèle Duquet), who is nearing death and completely nonresponsive. The podcast about eerie occurrences she cohosts with her friend Justin (Adam DiMarco) must continue, so she spends her evenings in headphones on her laptop at the dining room table recording with him. She is supposedly the skeptic in their dynamic, though their current episode is going to put that to the test.
Justin claims to have been sent a mysterious email containing 10 audio files. Deciding to ignore the risk that it could be a virus, he plays the first one. They appear to contain recordings of a couple in which the boyfriend is attempting to prove to the girlfriend that she talks in her sleep. This being a horror story, things get creepy pretty quickly, and Evy begins to experience subtly strange phenomena in her mother’s house. As they work their way through the files, it becomes increasingly apparent that they would be much better off if they had only held something that could be handled by McAfee.
This is a very slow burn story that will definitely put off viewers who expect more action in their horror or who need everything neatly explained. Evy and her mother are the only characters we ever see on screen, and the latter doesn’t speak, so Kiri has to carry the whole movie effectively on her own, a task she proves more than capable of. She is imminently watchable and her descent into paranoia and possible madness is utterly convincing.
First time feature director Ian Tuason and his cinematographer Graham Beasley masterfully frame every moment, milking as much menace as they can from the home’s numerous shadowy alcoves and dated decor. While there are many scenes in which nothing appears to occur, the sense of unease that David Gertsman’s disquieting sound design elicits in the viewer will have you thinking you spot things in the darkness that may or may not actually be there.
The overall arc of the story is fairly standard and predictable, but thanks to the craft of those involved the end result is uniquely chilling. I’ve never seen a film utilize sound to such unnerving effect, bringing forth an almost palpable distress as you hear it. I don’t know how well Undertone would hold up to repeat viewings and I doubt most home setups will do the movie justice, but at least on the first watch, in a movie theater with massive surround speakers, it makes for a memorably unsettling experience. ★★★★
rated r for language.
★★★★★ = Excellent | ★★★★ = Very Good | ★★★ = Good | ★★ = Fair | ★ = Poor
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