A terrifying experience that mostly relies on audio and sound to create horror that has a surreal atmosphere and a psychological undertone.

• Scare factor: ★★★★☆
• Originality factor: ★★★★★
• Surreal factor: ★★★★★
• Psychological factor: ★★★★★
• Folkore factor: ★★★★★

Undertone is a very original and clever film that uses audio to scare and create a surreal atmosphere about European folklore. With an unreliable narrator this film asks to not only be watched carefully but to listen too, to make it a horrifying experience of the senses. It stars Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet. Directed & written by Ian Tuason. 

Duration: 1h 34m

Plot

Evy Babic and her friend Justin Manuel run a podcast The Undertone that investigates paranormal occurrences. While Evy plays the skeptic, Justin plays the believer. Because Evy’s mother is sick and dying, she is at her mother’s house to take care of her, while she talks to Justin on the phone. 

When it’s time to record a new podcast, Justin has some audio files send to him via email about a couple. It contains ten files and they start listening to it together. On those files are the voices of a couple Jessa and Mike and something strange is happening to Jessa. She talks in her sleep and on the audio track there’s something on the background. Evy says it’s a hoax, but the more they listen to it, the more strange things there are to hear, like a children’s song, a creepy doll, Jessa who talks with a strange voice. And when Justin plays some children’s song backwards, disturbing words are heard. 

The more files they listen to, the more the events happening to Jessa and Mike seem to be connected to Evy’s life, her home and those files are starting to blend into her life. Now strange things are seeping through and it seems to have something to do with an ancient spirit called Abyzou. When Evy also finds out she is pregnant, things take a much more sinister turn. 

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Short Review

Although it has a simple premise, the execution is not only very original but also very disturbing. For starters it’s a very audio focused film. It tells us to pay attention to look, but also to listen, indicated by the intrusive sound of the ticking clock. While it’s all about sounds and audio and what you can do with it, don’t think you don’t have to watch carefully. 

The whole setting is at her mother’s house. While she constantly talks to Justin and has a phone conversation with her  boyfriend, we only see her with her mother as the only other person on screen. Her mother lies in bed, sleeping, she doesn’t talk or move and Evy is singing the children’s song Baa, Baa, Black Sheep to her to comfort her. Even when the nurse is visiting to check up on her mother we hear them talking to each other but the nurse is positioned in a way she’s off screen and we only see Evy. This causes a very intimate and introverted effect, but it also feels like Evy becomes an unreliable narrator. It even goes so far that it could be all in her head. 

The house feels very oppressive, it’s always night, it’s always dark outside with the curtains closed and with only a couple of lights on, adding to a gloomy dark atmosphere and the intimate feel of the film. It’s very interesting that there are two main characters with only one on screen and the other we only hear his voice. We don’t even know what he looks like. That also adds to a dissociative feeling. Even more so that Evy most of the time on the podcast plays a role, the character of the non-believer, creating a distance between us, the viewers and her real character. We never really get to know her. 

The cinematography is amazing, the shots give off a foreboding feeling. Focusing on negative space creates an ominous feeling that you have to look past Evy which if you do, it will be rewarding sometimes. While it is an audio focused film, it does a lot with visuals too. Evy for example is seen very often via a mirror. Like an echo. Also other disturbing images are seen in a mirror reflected even by another mirror. This creates another dissociative effect. 

But the main focus is on the audio. It’s very interesting and cleverly done to make a film that fully relies on the audio to create horror. While the visuals also add a lot to the horror, it’s a mere gimmick that relays the story that keeps elusive in the audio. The film is very surreal, creating not only surreal images, but also surreal audio. What you see and hear isn’t fully explained and the main focus is to create a surreal atmosphere that speaks to a subconscious level of fear. 

The story focuses on the 10 files Justin got sent. While it remains unclear who sent it, why and if it’s real or a hoax it does have a disturbing effect on Evy. Each file builds up towards the next. It becomes creepier and more mysterious. It’s not only about what Jessa and Mike are saying but also what they are not saying, but something else. The other audio on the track is very creepy. When it’s played backwards or slowed down, other things can be heard. It’s all very disturbing even more so that it has to do with children’s songs. This fresh take on the creepiness of children’s songs, which indeed all have sinister lyrics, makes it very disturbing and scary. But it gets worse when what’s on the files seems to be directly related to Evy and even becomes intertwined in the present. 

To learn what is going on, although much remains mysterious and elusive, you have to put the visuals and the audio together. Separate they are two kinds of communication, but together they form a story that tells Evy’s ending which is never fully shown or told. This is very cleverly done and very original to give pieces of the puzzle that click together, but separately they are just scary images, or sounds. 

The film is very scary. If you let your senses immerse into the story, it does reel you in and causes a scary experience. The audio is very creepy, as are some visual scenes and the doll that says “I like it here in the dark” is more than creepy and the overall atmosphere has a constant feeling of dread. The spirit that is invoked is Abyzou, a female spirit of European folklore who is known as the Child Taker, and connected to miscarriage, and death of babies. Although not on screen, it does hint towards the presence of this spirit. Lights that go on and off by themselves. A clock that stops ticking. A shape of a female presence in the background. A faucet that is turned on. It all leads up to a climactic ending where it all comes together. 

Evy’s confession, her fears, the spirit, the connection between Jessa, Mike and Evy are a result of a terrifying build up. When she runs into the kitchen, chairs are up to the ceiling, cabinets are open, and I don’t know if it’s the same doll as the very creepy doll from the video, but there’s a doll that looks just like it on the fridge. If that is the same doll, it can bring the narrative into a whole new perspective. Why would Evy, if it’s the same doll, have that particular doll? Do the files bleed into Evy’s life, or is she an unreliable narrator? 

The ending remains ambiguous. It could be real paranormal events that they are now experiencing, or it could be all in her head. She is vulnerable, drinks, takes medication, it’s stressful to take care of her dying mother all by herself, and on top of that she’s pregnant and considers an abortion. Evy also didn’t have the greatest relationship with her mother. Raised Catholic and strict which didn’t agree with her. The ominous statues and images of Catholic icons throughout the house are oppressing. It also addresses and symbolizes Evy’s fear of motherhood. 

On the other hand if the conversations with Justin and later the callers are real, it must be really supernatural. By playing the audio files they have summoned Abyzou which explains what is happening to Evy and her fate. Evy becomes highly connected to Jessa through supernatural interference and what’s happened to them is now happening to her. Evy’s fate is shown with almost subliminal images. 

Spoilers + Explained

It seems that Evy’s mother is being possessed by Abyzou. We learn from Evy;s confession to the caller that she has killed her mother. Later we see Evy with a plastic bag over her head as is seen in a subliminal image. It can be a reference that she killed her mother that way, or thinks she did and feels guilty and is already connected to Jessa and Mike who were found that way on the bottom of the stairs.

The mother roams the house appearing behind Evy. And probably eventually kills her by pushing her down the stairs which is also very briefly seen, when Evy lies at the bottom of the stairs. While the walls just like in Jessa and Mike’s house are covered with crayon drawings of babies.

The events mixes not only what happened to Jessa who was also pregnant and Mike, but the veil between them disappears, the doll is even seen on the fridge in Evy’s kitchen. It also mixes Evy’s psychological distress, her guilt and overwhelming feeling with the supernatural that takes advance of her vulnerability.

Undertone not only offers great scares, an original story, and interesting psychological horrors, but does it with a surreal narrative that leaves you relying on your senses what to make of it. This is quite an experience that feels fresh and original and terrifying.