Undertone — Cursed Frequency — The Podcast Nobody Asked For (And With Good Reason)

Undertone: Cursed Frequency: full review

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Independent horror cinema has a problem: it thinks regurgitating ‘80s formulas is enough to scare a generation that’s watched Hereditary on loop while munching popcorn. Undertone: Cursed Frequency is the perfect example of this. It’s not bad, mind you. It’s adequate, like a test you scrape by on and no one remembers the next day. Ian Tuason, director and screenwriter, had previously given us The Heretics (2017), a film that at least had the decency to be so ridiculous you ended up laughing. Here, however, he attempts to play it serious, atmospheric, «this is real psychological horror.» Spoiler: it’s not. It’s a horror podcast recorded on celluloid, with every genre cliché tossed into a blender and shaken without flair.

The premise is as old as VHS: a podcast host (Nina Kiri) moves in with her sick mother (Michèle Duquet) and discovers audio tapes documenting the final days of a tormented, pregnant couple haunted by paranormal phenomena. Of course, the tapes start mirroring her own life, as if the screenwriter had just discovered the concept of «symmetry» five minutes before writing the treatment. The worst part isn’t that it’s predictable—indie horror thrives on that—but that it doesn’t even bother to disguise it. Every twist is as subtle as a hammer to the forehead, and every scare is calculated with the precision of a Swiss watch… if the Swiss watch were designed by someone who’s never seen a watch in their life.

The shoot, according to the few interviews I could dig up, took place in Ontario with a budget that wouldn’t even cover the craft services on Stranger Things. Black Fawn Films and Slaterverse Pictures, the production companies behind the project, have a history of low-budget horror films ranging from entertaining (The Oak Room) to downright forgettable (Let Her Out). With Undertone, they land somewhere in the middle: it’s not the worst they’ve done, but it’s also not what’s going to save their careers. Graham Beasley’s cinematography tries to create an oppressive atmosphere with green and blue tones reminiscent of The Ring, but without that classic’s visual elegance. Here, the dark shots just look like the result of filming in a basement with a flashlight and praying no one notices.

And then there’s the sound. Oh, the sound. The audio tapes, which should be the film’s heart, sound like they were recorded with a toy microphone and then run through an Instagram filter. The whispers, the eerie noises, the terrified gasps… it all feels pulled from a YouTube tutorial on «how to make your podcast sound professional.» The sound design doesn’t scare; it bores. It’s like listening to someone chew gum for an hour and a half, hoping that at some point, the gum will turn into something interesting. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

Direction and staging: The art of not bothering (too much)

Ian Tuason isn’t a bad director. He’s just a lazy one. Undertone has moments where it almost works: a long take of Nina Kiri walking through her house at night with a flashlight, reflections in mirrors that seem to hide something… but these are just sparks in a sea of mediocrity. The problem isn’t that he doesn’t know how to create tension; it’s that he doesn’t care enough to sustain it. The scares are predictable, the silences drag on to the point of insufferable, and the key scenes—like the final climax—look like they were shot with the urgency of someone who has a plane to catch in two hours.

The editing doesn’t help. There are abrupt transitions that try to be artistic but end up confusing, as if the editor had just discovered the «cut» button five minutes before delivering the project. And don’t even get me started on the flashbacks: the scenes from the audio tapes are so poorly integrated into the narrative that, more than once, you wonder if you’re watching the film or some low-budget found footage glued together with tape.

Performances: The cast that deserved better

Nina Kiri (The Handmaid’s Tale) is, by far, the best thing about Undertone. She has a magnetic presence, an ability to convey anguish with just a gesture, and she manages to make you care about her character… at least until the script forces her to say something like «Why is this happening?» for the umpteenth time. Kiri tries to save what’s unsalvageable, but even she has her limits. When her character starts hearing voices in her head, it’s not terrifying: it’s sad, because you know she’s acting with material that doesn’t even merit a decent monologue.

Adam DiMarco (The Magicians, The White Lotus) does what he can with the role of the skeptical boyfriend who, of course, ends up believing in the paranormal. His chemistry with Kiri is palpable, but the script forces them to repeat the same dialogues over and over, like theater actors in a play no one’s rehearsed. The supporting cast, like Kiri’s mother (Michèle Duquet), have touching moments—the scene where she talks about her illness is probably the best in the film—but these are just sparks in a sea of clichés.

The best

Nina Kiri: The only reason not to turn off the film after 20 minutes. Her performance is the only thing saving Undertone from being a forgettable episode of The X-Files*.

• Some visual shots: Beasley manages, in fleeting moments, to create unsettling images, like Kiri’s reflection in a mirror that shouldn’t be there. They’re few, but they exist.

• The initial premise: The idea of mixing podcasts, audio tapes, and psychological horror has potential. Too bad the script doesn’t know what to do with it.

The worst

• The script: Predictable, repetitive, and full of dialogues that sound like they were written by a ‘90s horror algorithm. Every twist is so obvious you could guess it from the trailer.

• The sound design: The audio tapes sound like they were recorded on a toy walkie-talkie. Psychological horror requires subtlety, and there’s not a trace of it here.

• The pacing: The film drags like a zombie in a marathon. Some scenes last three times longer than necessary, while others look like they were cut with garden shears.

• The scares: They’re so predictable you could set an alarm for each one. The jump scare doesn’t scare anymore; it’s a meme.

The lack of originality: Undertone doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. It’s like watching The Ring, Paranormal Activity, and The Blair Witch Project* thrown into a blender and ending up with the most bland smoothie.

The Verdict of Claqueta Ácida

Undertone: Cursed Frequency isn’t a bad film. It’s just an unnecessary one. It has moments that work, performances that shine, and a premise with potential, but everything is drowned under a lazy script, amateur sound design, and direction that seems to have been done on autopilot. Ian Tuason and his team try, but effort isn’t always synonymous with quality. In the end, you leave the theater with the same feeling as when you listen to a horror podcast in bed: something kept you awake, but you’re not sure it was worth it. 6.1/10 for something that could’ve been memorable but ended up as «meh.» 💀

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