Two podcasters who investigate the paranormal receive unknown recordings far more sinister than they expected.
Breathtaking build-up, captivating climax.
In my previous review of Rabbit Trap (2025): https://kaygazpro.com/rabbit-trap-2025/, I teased a companion piece. It is safe to say now that Undertone is that film – similar in spirit (pun intended), yet strikingly different in execution.
Its most obvious and undeniable strength lies in its sound design. Not merely as a technical achievement, but as a narrative force. Like Rabbit Trap, the sound doesn’t support the narrative; the sound is the narrative. The recording, editing, and mixing create a sonic landscape that constantly destabilises you. The deafening silence. The sudden, eerie intrusions of sound. The question of whether what you heard was ever there to begin with, before, during, or after the headphones come off. It is an experience that spreads throughout the screening room and the surround system, forcing you to confront the fragile boundary between perception and reality.
Less obvious, but equally masterful, is Graham Beasley’s cinematography. The use of depth of field is particularly striking: the out-of-focus background becomes as compelling as the foreground, drawing your attention away from Evy, played wonderfully by Nina Kiri, just long enough to make you question what you might be missing. Your gaze shifts constantly – between her reactions and the uncertainty behind her. The wide shots amplify this unease, often splitting the frame into two opposing forces: Evy and the consuming darkness. Your eyes move instinctively, left and right, scanning for threats, anticipating intrusion. I mean, the film weaponises your attention. And then comes the narrative layering…
While Evy and Justin anchor the central plot, Jessa and Mike provide an audio subplot that does more than complement – it sets the pillars. And beneath both threads lies an even deeper, more unsettling tension: psychology versus the paranormal. Is this the manifestation of trauma, guilt, and maternal anxiety? Or something far older – an ancient entity, a deity that predates current belief systems and consumes what is most vulnerable?
Writer/director Ian Tuason’s film thrives in these juxtapositions. Established religion versus primordial darkness. Symbols of protection that, when stripped of certainty, become symbols of fragility. The illusion of safety versus the terror of its absence, and… maternity, not as joy, but as vulnerability, responsibility, and fear.
Undertone is not a film that ends when the credits roll. It demands that you sit with it, piece it together, question what you’ve seen – and what you think you’ve understood (literally, people sat through the end credits, and not because they were waiting for a post-credit scene). Forget historical or mythological accuracy. This is about experience. About feeling. And when it ends, as said, you may need a moment to breathe.
A TikTok episode comparing Undertone and Rabbit Trap is on the way – two films so alike, yet so fundamentally different. I hope you experience both.
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