UNDERTONE
**
Directed by Ian Tuason.
Starring Nina Kiri, Michelle Duquet, Adam DiMarco.
Horror, Canada, 94 Minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in Cinemas in the UK on 10th April by Vertigo Releasing
I got my ears vacuumed a few weeks ago. Not syringed, but actually vacuumed with some tubelike apparatus that was stuck in each ear and sucked the excessive wax away from around my eardrums. Afterwards I had to take a hearing test, and surprisingly, I aced it. I then went on with the rest of my day listening to the dulcet tones of my fellow Glaswegians shouting and swearing at each other, or themselves, and/or watching various forms of loud annoying content on their phones as the bus spluttered its way through town from the hospital. I tell you of my recent audio adventures because of UNDERTONE, a quietly hyped ghost story from the A24 stable that relies almost exclusively on its soundtrack, which quite frankly I had problems with, even with my excellent ears.
With his feature debut, Ian Tuason attempts to tackle the ghost story from a 21st century angle, by casting a podcaster in the role of protagonist here. Nina Kiri, who largely spends the majority of the film sharing the screen with no-one but herself, plays Evy, host of “The Undertone”, a podcast that explores listeners' stories and experiences of the supernatural and uncanny. Far more sceptical than her long-distance co-host Justin, the podcast is seemingly her only outlet to blow off steam, due to the fact that she is a live-in carer for her bedbound, non-communicative mother. Evy’s cynicism could also be due to her strict Catholic upbringing which she has turned her back on. This rejection of the spiritual is soon tested when Justin excitedly claims to have received a set of files that will make for a blockbuster episode. The ten audio files which start off innocuously enough with a person named Mike recording his partner Jessa’s sleep talking soon turn into something far more sinister as Jessa’s rendition of London Bridge is revealed to contain a hidden message when played backwards. Evy soon finds herself consumed by these increasingly menacing files, especially when she discovers a dark, evil figure from folklore could actually be involved in a way that is affecting Evy and her home life.
Casting the podcast aspect aside, all the elements of a classic ghost story are there: a protagonist haunted by their own guilt, spooky artefacts and an evil presence with a wicked design being the most familiar here. The problem however is the execution. The closed in location of the film on one hand helps enforce an effectively stifling feeling of claustrophobia but on the other hand it also displays its limited resources, in both a visual and narrative fashion. You cannot help but think that the film would be more effective as a podcast, or even a good old fashioned radio play, or a short film. In the early stages of the film it appears that Tuason is making effective use of the frame and its empty space, leading the viewers eye to where you would expect something to jump out and scare the protagonist and in turn ourselves. What starts out as an effective use of manipulating tension soon runs out of steam and deflates the film. I was constantly reminded of Matt Vesely’s MONOLITH, a film that played FrightFest in 2023, starring Lily Sullivan that has a very similar premise set entirely in one house and featuring little more than a woman with a laptop and a set of headphones that was far more effective in every aspect that is also on display here.
Distorted voices, screams and spooky recitals of nursery rhymes can only carry you so far. A fact that UNDERTONE attempts to disprove but sadly fails at doing so. The film's otherwise careful pacing comes to a sudden halt with an audibly chaotic finale. And this is why I yammered on for so long about my ears earlier on. Despite watching the film in a cinema with expert projection I was quite lost and frankly baffled by what was going on, unable to make or pick out barely anything legible out of the storm of screaming, shouting and feedback that poured from the speakers. The fact that I am now wondering about my failure to grapple with what exactly happened is the fault of Tuason, who has been chosen to helm PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 8 on the strength of this, or if I need to book a follow-up appointment at the Ear, Nose and Throat Department is not what I should be walking away with after watching any film, let alone a supposedly horrific ghost story grappling with faith, murder and demonic manipulation.
Iain MacLeod