Right off the bat, I love a lot about Undertone. The underlying premise is of the demon summoning variety, but it’s not the story, it’s how it’s told. And Undertone is a fantastic example of this concept.

• Directed by: Ian Tuason
• Written by: Ian Tuason
• Starring: Nina Kiri. Adam DiMarco. Michèle Duquet

My Small Complaint

I’m going to quibble with some of the elements presented. There is a zero-percent chance that they found anything menacing about the historical origin of “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. This song has a known, documented meaning: it’s about poverty and high taxation.  It’s not out of the realm of realism for people to find wild interpretations of things online that are less than true. It’s just that this one has such an easy Google search. 

It ends up being a central part of the first half, so that’s a bit distracting. Especially since there are so many more horrifying nursery rhymes they could have pulled from. 

Good Characterization

But that is a minor compliant about a slow-paced but effective horror movie. I love everything about the production of Undertone. Like, the way we know main character Evy had a drinking problem before her podcast partner Justin brought it up, just by the way the actress approached the liquor cabinet. 

I also love how there are only two characters seen on screen: Evy and her mother. Everyone else is a voice over the phone, or audio tapes.  Sound is, quite clearly, a large part of this movie and for once I deeply regret having captions on. There are some clear spoilers in seeing the spoken words spelled out,  although it’s pretty clear where this is heading. 

Cameras

What I really want to talk about is the camera work. So many of the scenes with Evy feel voyeuristic. Something is watching her beyond the camera. The framing also puts dark doorways behind her, leading to the feeling that she’s constantly vulnerable.  There is something compelling about the filming. It’s economical and smart.  

It’s also a slow burn, which I don’t hate. There is a lot of watching people listen to things. So, if podcasts aren’t entirely appealing to you, this may be off-putting. The director does a lot to ratchet up tension. And, showing parallels to Evy’s house to what they are listening to is rather effective.  

Also effective is the repeated refrain, “let’s get into character”. This is a clear indication that Evy has beliefs beyond what she portrays on her podcast. She’s not the hardcore skeptic, she’s a former Catholic, and with that comes a whole lot of ingrained or indoctrinated belief. 

Faith or Not

Where Undertone falters for me is the heavy tie to religion. It bypasses standard possession movies and moves into a cautionary tale on abandoning faith. Now, if only they had done more with the tie between Evy’s mother singing her “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and hearing it on the cursed audio files central to the plot. Or maybe the director did just enough. 

Catholic faith is central to Evy, as is her guilt over her life choices. She harbors resentment over taking care of her dying mother and her desire to end her pregnancy. She’s ending the cycle of motherhood. Which, one would think a baby-killing demon—the subject of their current podcast—would be all about. That’s not how this goes, however. 

Theory

This last bit is interesting on its own. There’s a lot about this we could dissect. For starters, is any of this real? We don’t see anyone else in Evy’s world, which is either a clever storytelling tactic or a manifestation of her mental state.  Especially when they start getting implausible phone calls providing unverifiable information and only make the story worse.  We can also assume Evy is drinking again. She’s sipping from a brown mug she was pouring liquor into earlier. And, it’s not entirely clear when her mother actually dies. It could be argued that, along with everything else, she’s dead before the movie even started. But that’s the fun part of movies like this, they don’t give you all th answers and you can walk away with your own interpretations.

She’s surrounded by the items that bring her the most guilt: the Catholic images and relics. These are manifestations of Evy’s guilt over not being there for her mother the way her mother needed her to be. 

Final Thoughts

Maybe there is no demon, not really. Maybe it’s just a daughter who feels like she’s failed the expectations of her mother and her life. Undertone is a delightfully ambiguous movie that chooses not to explain much. It’s almost perfect for me. Although, I probably would have ended it maybe a minute before it actually does. Also, H³ hated it, so that’s a total win. Although, he did watch the entire thing.