Film Review: UNDERTONE (2025): A Spooky and Interesting Tale of a Seemingly Cursed Podcast

Undertone Review

Undertone (2025) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Ian Tuason and starring Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet, Keana Lyn Bastidas, Jeff Yung, Ryan Turner, Ari Millen, Marisol D’Andrea, Seled Calderon, Bianca Nugara, Jayda Woods, Sarah Beaudin and Christina Notto.

Filmmaker Ian Tuason’s spooky podcast horror movie, Undertone, focuses a lot on hidden symbolism in children’s nursery rhymes, stories and songs. A lot of that symbolism is horrific and frightening in nature and leaves one to wonder what the authors of these tales for kids really wanted to say. Set mostly in a home in which Evy (Nina Kiri) runs her podcast show, there’s a lot of freaky material in Undertone which is heightened by the director’s mounting sense of dread that slowly builds and carries itself throughout the movie all the way to its bone-chilling conclusion.

Evy is the main star of the picture. She’s pretty much the only one on-screen who’s not on the computer screen except for Evy’s suffering mother, played by Michèle Duquet. Adam DiMarco serves as Evy’s partner in crime on the podcast show, Justin. Exploring the supernatural aspects of real-life happenings, they stumble upon a series of clips which build to something frightening. This is the type of movie where words in music are played backwards to see what the artist of a story or song really wanted to say and why they wanted to say it. Evy’s pregnancy becomes a plot point as well as our heroine struggles to maintain her sanity as things spiral out of control not only with her mom, but with the topics that have been chosen for her podcast.

There’s more going on in Undertone than in the similarly-themed Paranormal Activity movies, but the scares feel like they are lifted from The Blair Witch Project at the end of the new picture. There is the exception that the new movie amplifies creepy sounds just as must as it does disturbing images and the result is a movie that will be fascinating to anyone who listens to podcasts or hosts one. At the picture’s end, we’re left with some noises that are loud and eerie and the way the aforementioned images hit the viewer is just the way a horror movie like this needs them to hit in order to be deemed a success.

However, Undertone occasionally stumbles in the development of the mother character. Of course, it’s hard to discuss a movie like this which rests on a major series of secrets without giving anything away. Without resorting to spoilers, the film is over-the-top with themes that are full of formidable intensity. There’s a lot of development of the Evy character as she dives head first into the analysis of lyrics and words that plague works meant for children. This makes one ponder the thought that these tales featured subliminal messages that were meant to shock just as much as entertain kids. When the movie reaches its unsettling climax, Evy gets hit hard with revelations that pull the rug out from everything we thought her character was about at the outset. If the fate of the mother feels like it gets lost in the shuffle, it’s a bit disappointing, but the movie still works thanks to the terror it stirs up in its podcast scenes.

Kiri and DiMarco have a great rapport on-screen and their characters carry their podcast for the duration of the movie in ways that the discussions never become repetitive or boring. There are new revelations with each analysis of a kid’s poem or song (or whatever) and they make for thought-provoking situations that warn us not to look into things too deeply if we don’t want to pay a big price (either emotionally or physically). Undertone shocks the viewer with just how far it goes to prove its points and doesn’t disappoint in the final analysis for people who love found footage horror movies or just good horror movies in general.

At the conclusion of the movie, the viewer starts to piece the puzzle together and the plot of the film comes full circle with scenes that will frighten the audience significantly more than what was expected earlier on. This is the type of horror film that expertly builds suspense and has the creepiness factor intact when all is ready to be unleashed on the audience in terms of key plot details.

Nina Kiri carries most of Undertone on her back as her character hosts a podcast that very few people would want to listen to or participate in hosting because it brings the mind to very dark places. Kiri is left with the challenging lead character who develops over the course of the movie in ways that will keep the viewer glued to the screen. Evy goes darker places than she wanted to in Undertone, but the message of the film is that at the end of everything we analyze, we find the price of our extensive research may not be one that is worth paying in the end as it takes a toll on the mind that could challenge our very own sanity. This is a remarkably crafted, if slightly flawed, effort that is definitely a must for hardcore horror fans.

Rating: 7/10

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