Undertone

Directed by Ian Tuason, Undertone details the spooky happenings that occur after a podcaster (Nina Kiri’s Evy) caring for her dying mother (Michèle Duquet) begins listening to a series of disturbing audio files. Filmmaker Tuason, armed with his own screenplay, delivers an exceedingly (and, for the most part, excessively) deliberate endeavor that fares best within its forboding, ominous opening stretch, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the picture receives plenty of mileage out of Kiri’s first-class (and entirely sympathetic) turn as the central character – with the promising atmosphere heightened by impressively eerie sound design and Graham Beasley’s creepy visuals. It’s disappointing to note, then, that Undertone grows less and less compelling as it (very slowly) unfolds, as Tuason’s decidedly spare script increasingly contains few elements designed to sustain the viewer’s waning interest and attention (ie it’s all just so frustratingly abstract, ultimately). By the time the almost laughably abrupt ending rolls around, in which virtually none of the movie’s mysteries are solved or explained, Undertone has confirmed its place as a disappointing misfire that would’ve worked a whole lot better as a short.

** out of ****