Listening to the Sounds in Silence

The tagline for breakout indie horror hit Undertone is, "The Scariest Movie You'll Ever Hear". This declaration sets out the film's stall as a uniquely audio based horror, and that is exactly what it delivers. The result is something that will chill some people to the bone and leave others falling asleep in their seats.

Originally made for a meagre $500,000, the film takes place entirely in one location (director Ian Tuason's childhood home) and centres on podcaster Ivy, played with impressive range by Nina Kiri. Ivy is caring for her dying mother (the only other person who appears onscreen) so has to wait until the early hours of the morning to record her paranormal podcast with friend Justin (the voice of Adam DiMarco). She plays the role of sceptic to Justin's believer but her rationality is tested when her cohost begins playing some eerie audio files he received from an anonymous listener.

Although Undertone isn't a found footage film, it very much takes the shape of something from that subgenre. Vanishingly little actually happens and it leans heavily on the atmosphere to provide the chills. You spend a lot of time looking at the empty space behind Ivy and peering into shadowy corners looking for something that isn't there. A phenomenon called auditory pareidolia describes a listener hearing words where there are none as the brain tries to impose order on static noise, and it is fitting that a film based on replaying, slowing down and reversing audio recordings should leave your mind to conjure its own scares. You are given plenty to work with. The idea of haunted audio is inherently creepy and Ivy's religious upbringing leaves room for lashings of Catholic guilt. The focus is, unsurprisingly, on the sound design and if you miss it in cinemas you'll need a very good home set-up to get the most out of it.

Even with the immersive audio, there are several banana skins waiting to send you slipping out of the fear zone. Some of the dialogue is clunky, especially the stuff where Ivy is trying to sound scientifically sceptical. Nursery rhymes can be creepy and the idea of them having sinister origins isn't new, but the idea of "Ba Ba Black Sheep" being about sheep eating a starving farmer and his family is beyond preposterous. There is also the possibility that (like this reviewer's did) your brain interprets something ridiculous in the audio and the tension the film has worked so hard to create instantly melts away.

If you can get past these hurdles then Undertone is a film that uses a stripped down premise to make the most of its tight budget. Tuason clearly knows what scares people and it will be interesting to see what he does next. Actually, a quick check reveals his next project is an entry in the "Paranormal Activity" franchise, so maybe not.

6 3AM podcast recordings out of 10.

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