Ian Tuason’s “undertone” had to deal with a handful of restraints to present its podcast-centered horror tale.
Made with a modest production budget of 500,000 USD, Tuason had to use his childhood home in Toronto, Canada, as the setting for their one-location story. There’s nothing much to explore in this house, so the story would bounce scenes between the bedroom, bath, living room, and dining area.
The thing about “undertone” is that you can feel the limitations of its budget from the get-go. It even had to market itself as “auditory horror” as a means of presenting most of the scares. The lead character, podcast host Evy (Nina Kiri), listens to a ten-part audio file that gets increasingly creepy. The files were sent in by a couple who have been hearing unexplained loud noises at midnight, where most of the recordings take place. Soon, she will discover that a similar sound can also be heard across her room.
Tuason banks on a great sound mix for “undertone”, which could be where a lot of the budget ended up. I saw the film in a theatre equipped with surround sound speakers, and I can assure you it doesn’t feel like a 500,000-dollar movie. What it doesn’t sound like are the inferior horror tentpoles in Hollywood, where it makes the most of heightened sound effects to encourage jump scares from the audience.
There are only two actresses in this movie: Nina Kiri as Evy and Michelle Duquet as her bedridden mother. They are both great, but the limitations of their material made me feel like I’m watching a short film project. I mean it both as a good and bad thing, as while I applaud the resourcefulness that they had to pull through here, it can easily be enhanced with more space and stakes to deal with.
“Undertone” is now showing in New Zealand cinemas.
Featured photos from A24.
Comments
Post a Comment