Undertone Review: A Slow-Burn Horror Built on Sound

Genre– Horror
Director – Ian Tuason
Writer– Ian Tuason
Cast – Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet
Release Date – March 13, 2026 (United States)
Runtime – 94 Minutes
My Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐☆☆☆

Undertone is going to be a very divisive film.

Undertone is going to be one of those movies, where it will appear on a lot of peoples best of year lists, especially in the horror fandom, but equally, it will appear on a lot of worst of lists.

And even as someone who thought it was decent, allbeit with flaws, I understand why someone would hate it.

Plot Summary of Undertone (Spoiler-Free)

Undertone follows Evy Babic, played by Nina Kiri, a woman moving into her estranged mother’s house to care for her.

Mama Babic, portrayed by Michèle Duquet, is in a coma when Evy arrives, leaving the house largely silent and isolated, where Evy records paranormal podcasts with her co-host, Justin, who lives in London, at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m.

Their routine changes when Justin receives ten mysterious audio files, and the two decide to build an episode around them, and over several days, Evy’s professional skepticism clashes with the unsettling content of the recordings, as the tension in the house and her own stress begins to creep into every corner of her life.

Undertone: Is It Worth Watching?

While I have my quibbles about Undertone, I thought it was a fairly tight, unnervingly controlled horror debut – a film that trusts you to notice the small details.

It avoids cheap scares, instead it uses sound and space to mess with your head, which if you have followed the marketing slogans, will probably not be what a lot of people will be expecting.

Damn false marketing.

While watching Undertone, you almost feel an unhealthy awareness of what sound does to perception – you notice Evy’s headphones, the hum of the refrigerator, a floorboard creaking, and the way a voice moves across the room – it’s all incredibly subtle, and a lot of people will be certainly be bored by it.

And although at times I found myself wishing the pacing had a little more direction, as at times it does feel like a short crammed into a full length movie, where some stretches of silence went on a bit too long, but I respected how deliberate it all was.

The shots are slow, the camera never flinches, and Nina Kiri’s performance is quietly magnetic, and these things helped carry me though the film.

Watching Evy navigate caregiving, professional duties, and mounting paranoia got in my head at times. and her reactions to sounds that may or may not exist around her hit better than anything the movie physically shows – this is a film of sound for the most part, but the visuals are also important, too.

The sound design is the crown jewel here though, and I say that without hesitation – the directional audio, the subtle changes when Evy puts on or takes off noise-canceling headphones, and the layering of natural and unnatural sounds all create a tension that builds without you realizing it.

It’s hard not to be aware of every tiny noise after a while, which is exactly what the movie wants, and there are sequences where the recordings she listens to start to feel like they’re in the room with her, and that’s clever, and I also didn’t catch myself smiling once at a jump-scare, because there are none.

As said, the visuals are important too, while we don’t have much to look at, we get framing, shadows, and slow 360° pans make you feel like something might pop up at any moment, that dares you to notice something that you might miss – but some of the slow pans went on longer than I wanted, so points to it for discipline if not entertainment value.

The story itself is very personal with some serious themes underneath it all, where the sense of duty, guilt, and complicated family dynamics quietly underpins the tension, and uou get glimpses of Evy’s feelings for her mother, her frustration at her own role, and the weight of responsibility and real life stress without it feeling like melodrama.

The pacing, as mentioned occasionally threatened my patience, and I say that as someone who loves slow burns, so if you don’t particulary enjoy them at the best of times, Undertone will feel like a slog but the limited location and small cast are strengths for me.

I also had mixed feelings about the ending, as while it resolves things in an understated way, which I respect, but I wanted just a tiny bit more payoff, and while that’s not a flaw so much as a personal taste thing, but it’s worth mentioning for anyone who prefers a little more narrative closure.

But I found Undertone a fascinating study in tension, sound, and what it does, it does quietly and deliberately, and I found myself appreciating that restraint, while also occasionally wishing it would just do a jump scare so I could breathe again, which might be a testament to how well it controls mood.

With that said, this is not a movie you watch casually, and if you decide to wait for streaming, you need a decent screen, good headphones, or ideally a theater, because without that, much of the impact evaporates, and I certainly can’t imagine it working as well on a tablet in a noisy room.

Undertone won’t be for everyone, it will be divisive, but I found it quiet and unsettling in a controlled way, and while I didn’t love every moment, the strengths outweighed the frustrations.

If I had to recommend it, I would say, if you enjoy films like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and Lake Mungo, you will probably appreciate Undertone – no, they aren’t exactly the same, but in terms of pacing and patience needed for those films, it’s the best I can come up with.

Or, if you’re someone who suffers from bad anxiety.

What I liked (And What I Didn’t Like)

Pros

Sound design

The real star of the show.

Nina Kiri’s

Carries almost the entire film without overdoing anything.

Camera work

Slow pans, shadows, framing – it all makes you look where you usually don’t.

Tension without jump scares

Unsettled by mood and sound, not boo moments.

Subtle emotional undercurrent

The themes underneath it all give it some extra depth.

Cons

Occasionally too slow

Some stretches test patience.

Limited payoff

The ending is subtle, and felt a little underwhelming.

Predictable at times

It borrows heavily from some other films, which made some of it a bit predictable.

Who Might Like Undertone

• Fans of slow, psychological horror
• People who like to notice sound and space in movies
• Those who enjoy single-location, character-driven tension
• Anyone who enjoys slow horror without jump scares

Who Might Dislike Undertone

• If you need fast pacing or constant action
• People looking for traditional jump-scare horror
• Anyone who doesn’t like subtle tension
• If you needs narrative payoff
• Those who struggle with quiet, controlled horror

Final Verdict: Did I Enjoy Watching Undertone?

Mostly – It’s a strange, tense, and personal experience , and while I didn’t enjoy every second, I respected almost all of it.

I would watch it again under the right circumstances, but I might also just leave it as one slightly intense, oddly patient evening with Evy Babic.

Undertone Trailer

Simon Leasher

A lover of cinema for over 35 years, I have watched many films from around the world in many different genres, yet I still normally always come back to trashy slasher horror films when in doubt. More

And yes, The Godfather 2 is better than The Godfather.