undertone (2025)

I have an unusually high bar for slow-build dread-based horror. I left this feeling underwhelmed.

I kept hoping for more of a payoff - something like the third act of Hereditary. By the end, I felt blue balled. The dread builds and builds and then just… doesn’t release the way I needed it to.

I appreciate the personal connection the director and writer had with his own parents dying. But I don’t fully understand the thematic link between death and postpartum depression and thoughts of harming your baby. Maybe I’m dumb, but those threads never fully connected for me.

The whole thing felt like a modern Blumhouse production - filmed exclusively inside one house, never going outside, very contained. Which can work. But I needed a stronger hook. I kept thinking this might have worked better as an actual podcast miniseries. The movie is about audio - creepy sounds, recording, listening - but film is a visual medium. You need something more to justify the format.

As an avid podcast listener, I was also befuddled by the structure of the podcast at the center of this. These two hosts recording in short 10-minute bursts, barely describing what they’re seeing or hearing, no real dynamic between them. I can buy that a podcast investigating creepy audio could pop off, but this is a very boring podcast in actuality.

I don’t know. Maybe it just wasn’t for me.

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