Undertone Review

I recently attended a secret screening for a horror film at my local cinema, I had no ieda what the film was. All I knew was that the film was a horror and was not yet released (or at least released traditionally) in the UK. The film turned out to be the indie horror "Undertone", which I had heard was making a small splash in the American market. I knew very little about the film, just that it had something to do with a woman listening to audio and something to do with the supernatural.

The film starts out with our lead character Evy (played by Nina Kiri) is taking care of her sick mother. The film embraces the low-budget nature of horror by having a minimal cast and never leaving the house that it is set in. This allows the filmmakers to make a very stripped down, but effective horror film.

We learn early on that Evy and her friend Justin (played by Adam DiMarco) run a podcast that covers the supernatural and encounters with ghosts. Interestingly Justin is never seen onscreen now is any other character (except the mother). This creates a very claustrophobic feel, we are put into this house alone with the character and it works really well, at m`king us feel like we are in the action.

Early on in the film we learn that Justin has received an anonymous e-mail with 10 strange recordings. Over the course of the film we gradually make our way through the recordings, which get increasingly more bizarre and disturbing. Like most effective horrors, this film doesn't show you much of the scares, it lets you hears things and it is up to your own imagination.

In between recording her podcast with Justin, our protagonist Evy struggles with her own personal life and letting go of her sick mother who is knocking on deaths door. However things start to get spooky, Evy begins to experience a presence in the house with her. The brilliance here is there are no monsters jumping out and visual effects. It allows the unseen and the unknown to get inside your head.

We don't really know if Evy is being haunted or if it is just in her head. Or even what lies at the end of these recordings that Justin has. The film doesn't have any big plot points, but it is a slow build. And maybe the presence in the house has something to do with the mother who we grow more suspicious of, but I won't spoil anything here.

As the only real performer on screen Nina Kiri does a great job of carrying the film, and keeping you engaged even when not much is happening on screen. This reminds me of something like "The Blair Witch Project" because it is not what you see, it is what you don't see. It is refreshing to see a horror film that takes things back to basic and succeed so well.