When Undertone landed on HBO’s [whatever they’re calling their streaming service now], I read several positive posts about it on Reddit. So I checked out the synopsis – paranormal podcasters experience paranormal stuff – I thought, “eh, why not?” and put it in my queue. It was with that same level of enthusiasm that I went ahead and watched it while sifting through my queues for movies to watch this month. I’m up to 28 new-to-me movies out of a goal of 31 this October, so I’m pretty sure I’ll make it. This is one of them. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Evy and Justin host The Undertone podcast. They explore stories of the paranormal. Justin is the believer and Evy is the skeptic. Their latest episode is about a series of recordings that were sent in to them in which a man records the nightly sleepwalking and sleeptalking of his partner. The woman talks gibberish at first but as they listen to more of the recordings, things get spookier with nursery rhymes and eerie chants. At the same time, Evy has some heavy stuff going on in her personal life that is possibly pushing her over the edge.
Let me say right at the top of this critical paragraph that Undertone is not bad. (uh oh) It has some very effective scares and builds tension naturally and steadily. That goes a long way toward making a movie watchable and puts it ahead of the majority of horror movies based on that alone. Evy is very believable as the Dana Scully (early seasons) of the podcasting duo. My biggest complaint is that I wish the story narrowed its scope considerably. I loved listening closely with Evy and Justin to the listener-submitted audio ghost/possession story. That’s creepy! And I was even onboard with them digging deeper into the nursery rhyme, but Evy’s story – and it is entirely her story (we never even see Justin) – gets too a little convoluted. She is caring for her dying mother and she is unexpectedly pregnant by a man she seems to dislike now. Maybe writer/director Ian Tuason thought those subplots gave Evy’s character more dimension but they didn’t obviously tie in to the rest of the story. Sure, I understand that many nursery rhymes were originally inspired by horrors like the plague, but playing them backwards invokes a demon? A baby eating demon? OK, let’s go with that. Then why is mom potentially possessed? She’s elderly and on her death bed. She doesn’t have a baby. Evy certainly isn’t a baby. Even if I were to accept that listening to the spooky stuff brought the evil presence to Evy’s house, she was wearing headphones. Is it all in her head? Then you have people calling in to a podcast (i don’t recall anyone mentioning that this is a live show) who have also been affected by the paranormal stuff. One asked for “Mary” but the only Mary they know is Evy’s unborn child (she mentioned that was a name she favored). One commits an atrocity while on the phone. Are they going for a Ghostwatch/Pontypool thing here? Unfortunately, these aren’t engaging, mysterious questions that add to the horror of the story. Instead, they are more confusing WTF questions that take one out of the central – and strongest – storyline.
The Final Cut: Undertone is an effectively creepy story that undercuts itself by adding a bunch of unnecessary and trite cliches as the story unfolds. Throwing every spooky thing at the wall to see what sticks isn’t a great approach to good storytelling.
