Fantasia Film Festival 2025 Review: The Undertone

The Undertone still courtesy of Fantasia Film Festival.

The Undertone Review

While horror movies are generally best viewed with a raucous crowd, The Undertone is the rare exception that may be best experienced alone (ideally, with a pair of headphones). 

Evy (Nina Kiri) and Justin (Kris Holden-Reid) co-host a podcast about the supernatural that takes a terrifying turn when Justin begins playing a pre-recorded message the duo receive by email. 

The message is an eerie and cacophonous stream of yelling and eerie voices that Evy and Justin begin exploring on their show, all while Evy is taking care of her dying mother in her home. 

Those two elements quickly begin to coalesce in first-time writer-director Ian Tuason’s terrific debut. Nina Kiri (The Handmaid’s Tale) carries the movie on her shoulders as the only on-screen actor with a speaking role, while her podcast co-host and her doctor are heard as disembodied voices during Nina’s phone calls. 

A Horror Film Made for Headphones

The Undertone is deceptively simple horror movie that knows there is nothing scarier than what we (think) we hear in the dark. While Nina replays the mysterious messages over and over looking for clues, it’s easy to be lulled into submission before Tuason delivers a well-executed jump scare.

Watching The Undertone late at night via a screener link with headphones on was an enveloping (and terrifying) experience. The sound design of the film is incredible, from the layered chaos of the recordings to the eerie naturalistic sounds of a settling home. The mix of those sounds are omnipresent as Nina tries to unpack the mystery at the heart of the film while dealing with her dying mother on the floor above her.  

The Undertone is an assured feature debut from Ian Tuason and one of the scariest horror films of the year. Watch it with headphones at your own peril. 

The Undertone screened at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.