In Undertone, a young woman named Evy (Nina Kiri) records a podcast about spooky myths and stories at 3:00 AM while also caring for her dying, catatonic mother upstairs. Evy’s podcast cohost Justin (Adam DiMarco) lives in London, which explains the odd recording time. Except, no it doesn’t. Evy lives on the US eastern coast somewhere, which means there’s only a four- or five-hour time difference, depending on what time of year it is. They could record in the afternoon or on weekends. I’d like to tell you the specific recording time is eventually tied to the demon haunting Evy’s house, but it’s not. It’s just a spooky time to record a podcast.
It might sound like I’m being nitpicky, but the movie goes out of its way to show us the time on the clock multiple times throughout the film. Why draw so much attention to the time if there isn’t going to be even a passing explanation for it? And this isn’t the only example of the film focusing on a detail for no real reason, often causing me to ask - why?
The plot of the film revolves around Evy and Justin listening to a series of audio files anonymously emailed to them. Ten to be precise. The email mentions something about the listener being cursed if they listen to all ten. Their podcast is basically Mythbusters: Salem edition, so of course they decide to listen to them.
The film's horror aspect is almost entirely centered around the "spooky" audio files, which starts out with Mike recording his wife Jessa to prove she talks in her sleep. The files quickly turn into strange sounds in the night, Jessa sleepwalking, the couple hearing a baby crying in the house, Jessa speaking as if possessed by a demon, creepy nursery rhymes playing in the house, and scary sounds over other scary sounds. And if that’s not cliched enough, Justin and Evy hear hidden voices in the sounds and discover messages when parts are slowed down or the nursery rhymes are played backwards. Somewhere, Paul McCartney is shaking his head.
Just like reading from the Book of the Dead or watching a movie about a girl in a well unleashes an evil spirit, listening to these audio files allows the demon of miscarriages into Evy’s home to torment Evy via by possessing her dying mother. You read that right - I said the demon of miscarriages. Make it make sense, I dare you. Yes, Evy is pregnant, but it’s another one of those details that makes you scratch your head at how irrelevant it is. In the audio files, the couple is happy to be pregnant, often talking about it. It makes sense that the demon might go after them. Conversely, when Evy finds out she’s a few weeks pregnant (from a guy we never see and who is mentioned exactly one time), she tells her doctor she's going to "consider all the options" rather than speak to an OB/GYN. Evy is also drinking and taking Lorazepam well before the demon gets involved. Maybe the demon goes after Evy because it’s pissed that Evy is doing the demon’s job for it.
On paper, the film’s premise of scary audio sounds good. The problem is the film constantly undermines the premise. In another example of the film focusing too much on style over substance, every time Evy puts on the headphones for the podcast, the film makes a point audibly cutting off all outside noise. In other words, Evy is wearing extremely good noise-cancelling headphones. Yet, she keeps hearing things in her house while wearing the headphones while listening to the audio files. She’ll hear a noise and quickly look over shoulder, which only makes sense if she saw something out of the corner of her eye. But then that’s not about scary sounds, that’s about scary sights.
The audio files themselves don’t make much sense in context. While we hear lots of spooky stuff on them, the one thing we don’t hear is Mike and Jessa listening to their own set of curse-inducing audio files. So how did the demon get introduced to Mike and Jessa? Is it a new demon that’s tech savvy? Is it an old demon that got bored of standard, random possessions and decided to get creative? And how does Mike and Jessa’s situation relate to Evy and her mother’s situation besides the very tenuous pregnancy link? Oh, and ten files? Really? The most unbelievable part of this entire movie is that Gen Z-ers have the patience to sit through four audio-only files let alone ten. I don’t think the demon thought this one all the way through.
If it sounds like I thought way too hard about many of Undertone’s details, it’s because I was as bored during the film as the demon was. The flow of the movie is all kinds of awkward, preventing it from ever building any real tension or suspense. It’s constantly interrupting the audio listening portion with Evy checking in on her mother every now and then or randomly jumping from day to night to day, never giving us a sense of how much time has passed. Even the listening portions were inconsistent, Evy and Justin listening to the files in random chunks instead of in pre-planned groups. You know - like literally every podcast has ever done.
As the movie neared its climax, I desperately hoped it would have a good pay off. Instead, it gave one of the most confusing reveals I’ve ever seen in a movie. And no, there is no demon reveal. Just a messy house that any poltergeist could lay claim too. And the film didn’t even have the wherewithal to circle back around to incorporating any nursery rhymes in the climax, despite that being another detail heavily focused on early in the film. In the end, it’s a film that wasn’t worth seeing or hearing.
Rating: Listen when I tell you to ask for seventeen dollars back.
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