If I was going to make a movie about a haunted podcast, I simply would not. But if I HAD to make a movie about a haunted podcast I’d make a number of decisions differently than Director Ian Tuason did with his debut feature Undertone. Horror movies are often better the more self contained they are, many low budget horrors taking place over the course of one night, in one building, or even one room. They’re about maintaining tension and building it up further and further until the end of the film where all of the ghosts and ghoulies truly come alive. They have simple but relatable characters, it helps if those characters are well written and contain some depth, but often they do not even need that.

The first sign of trouble coming from Undertone was listening to Evy Babic and her podcast partner Justin recording an episode. They’ve just received an anonymous email containing a recording of a woman talking in her sleep. As they begin listening to the mysterious voice records it seems like this movie will be taking place in a single night, a wise decision as previously discussed! That is, after all, how podcasts are recorded. As they listen to the eerie recording the camera fills the frame with empty space. A dark room behind where Evy sits, an empty stairwell, an ominous hallway. The film does this trick early and often, building tension with the well designed sound of the recordings.

It unfortunately completely wastes that tension nearly every time. Inevitably the resolution is the two paranormal reporters take a break from recording for the night, leading us to a doldrum of a day where Evy cares for her dying mother, wanders around her house talking on the phone with her deadbeat boyfriend, and occasionally does research on the recordings that were sent to her. The night scenes have something that could be promising if there were any attempt to sustain the feelings that they bring, the day scenes are impossibly boring and have the plodding beats of a plot path so worn you can see where the film is headed as clear as day.

The most frustrating tropes are the ones around Evy’s character. Primarily the age old “female character throwing up to signify she’s pregnant” bit. The film steers us down a path that could be about Catholic guilt surrounding abortion, that simply winds up feeling strangely pro life in the end. The demons that are haunting their podcast are of a baby killing variety so it’s a little kismet for them that Evy inadvertently is with child. Outside of that many of her character choices make zero sense. Her mother is on her deathbed, and yet Evy leaves for a full night to go to a party, leaving her bedridden mother in the house by herself? As the demon’s are tormenting her she leaves her fully over the ear headphones on even as flames engulf her living room?

So many of these mistakes could be overlooked, or even forgiven if the film was remotely fun. But it is dreadfully boring. Possibly more boring than the one hour episode of a podcast we see the characters cobble together over the course of a week. It’s plain this was at one point a thirty minute short film that was stretched past the breaking point to make it a feature. There are a few cute technical tricks, mostly revolving around the sound design, but the misses are too wide to find much joy in the rare moments that only kind of work. In the end you feel every excruciating minute of an overly long 95 minute movie. A feat in and of itself to be sure.

1/5