[MOVIE REVIEW] ‘Undertone’ leaves much to be desired

This review is VERY spoiler heavy! Do not read if you have not seen the film!

Hello out there to those that are out there. I'm Rob and I'm here to give you my well thought out whiplash feelings on Undertone, the new film directed by Ian Tuason and shot on a micro-budget of $500 thousand in his actual childhood home.

The movie follows Evy, who co-hosts a paranormal podcast called "The Undertone" with her recording partner on the west coast, Justin. She’s back home taking care of her dying mother and has to deal with the oppression of being back in her overly religious home. There is also the parallel of listening to these mentally unraveling audio tapes that were mysteriously delivered to Justin via email. 

As with every review, I base my thoughts off of "the five factors of scare-o-logy!” that I developed. They are as follows:

01. Cinematography

02. Horror "Acting" 

03. Score/Soundtrack 

04. Story

05. Scare Factor

Those categories will each receive up to 20pts. At the end, the points for each category are calculated into one final number, and that gives my letter grade and tier listing of the film. 

Total Overall Points:

S - 81 to 100 points

A - 61 to 80 points

B - 41 to 60 points

C - 21 to 40 points

D - 0 to 20 points

I scored Undertone like this:

Cinematography: 18 points - Very well done despite being focused on one individual mainly. When the film shifts to the walls or religious imagery, it does a great job with it. The color palette matches the muted feeling it leaves you with emotionally. 

Horror "acting": 10 points - Can't really say much about the "acting" considering it was only one person. She obviously had to carry the film, and being the main focus point for a little over an hour and a half is tough. The trope felt like it outlasted its welcome by about thirty minutes in. 

Score/Soundtrack: 14 points - There's ambience, but not really music or a score. There's a couple songs that play, but they're nursery rhymes that have to do with the story. Nothing regarding a selection of music for listening purposes though. 

I could say the sounds are the real star of this part. I feel like with headphones on, it will be even better. In the theater though, it was solid sound for what it was. 

Story: 8 points- Ultimately, this is the worst part of the movie. I thought it would be the best by the trailers and things leading up to it, but the story was very bland. As I said earlier, there's about ten things going on at once, but it focuses on one woman. 

Some parts make you think the co-host is involved, some parts make you think it's the mom, some parts make you think it's the daughter; it's a lot. There's also no definitive ending. The pure chaos at the end feels like they didn't have an ending, they got it done, and it was what it was. 

It kind of sucks that the story aspect of it was so wonky. Especially with the sound and cinematography being as good as they were. 

Scare Factor: 4 points - Only because there was a girl in my theater that actually said "this was one of the most intense and scary movies I have ever seen!" Maybe others have the same experience? Who knows? That's the beauty of the theater I guess. 

For me, this movie was not scary in the slightest. I had a strong feeling I knew what was going on and even called a few things. There wasn't anything profoundly needle moving but I guess there didn't need to be. 

I'm sure many tickets were sold on the premise alone. It did not live up to the hype in that department either if I'm being honest. 

Total points: 54 

Grade: B

Final Thoughts: I believe the advertising will be a cross this movie has to bare in the long run. A lot of people will go into this movie hoping to hear something revolutionary as they said. If you are an audiophile, you will probably be disappointed. 

They didn't capitalize on the audiophile aspect they've been pushing. Of course they can spin the wording how they like, that doesn't mean the original intention of the advertising wasn't there. 

While I gave this a B, I would definitely say it's a minus. There's a lot of good here, but I think someone else will come along with a formula like this and turn it into what this wanted to be. Maybe it will end up like The Last Shift and get a remake with a bigger budget, I don't know. 

What I do know is, if you like audio drama series like Malevolent, Parkdale Haunt, or The Cellar Letters, you'll really like this. Lots to pay attention to both audibly and visually with liminal space being used really well. 

Give it a shot though if you're feeling froggy and my view did not skew yours. Thanks for reading and see you soon. Remember to keep it classy with a dash of slashy.