undertone
A24 | Release Date: March 13, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJan 29, 2026
Some will argue that all of the themes of “undertone” don’t connect, but that’s a feature, not a bug. This is a film that doesn’t feel the need to explain itself. Nightmares rarely do. Read full review
88
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 26, 2026
A medley of fears, anxieties, and regrets that repeatedly messes with the senses, it exists at the nexus of sanity and madness, life and death, Heaven and Hell, and sound and image. Read full review
83
Original-CinThom ErnstMar 19, 2026
There’s a particular confidence to Undertone that doesn’t announce itself with spectacle, but with restraint. It’s the confidence of a film that knows exactly how little it needs to show you in order to get under your skin. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentApr 8, 2026
A cautionary tale against the dangers of excessive podcasting, this is a supremely spooky sonic ordeal. As an allegory for Catholic guilt, it’s haunting; as an auditory experience, it’ll fuck you up. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 12, 2026
It’s creepy as all get out and features a great performance from Nina Kiri, on-screen alone for most of the film, as a podcast host who has moved back to her childhood home to take care of her dying mother (Michèle Duquet). Things get weird. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonMar 12, 2026
It’s a properly scary movie, the kind that merits watching in a theater with a good sound system (or headphones in a dark room, at home). And “Undertone” provides terrific evidence of what a filmmaker can do even under constraint. The most powerful tool in an artist’s toolbox just might be the audience’s imagination. Read full review
80
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaMar 11, 2026
undertone is so effectively spooky that I found my eyes nervously darting to shadows as I walked to my car after the screening. The best horror movies don't need cheap jumpscares, they just need to make you feel like something dreadful is out there, lurking, waiting to make itself heard. Read full review
80
ColliderRoss BonaimeJan 30, 2026
With undertone, Tuason has created one of the few horror films that’s even more horrifying to hear than it is to see. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesKatie WalshMar 11, 2026
In channeling his creative resources toward the sound of “Undertone,” Tuason conjures a lot out of a simple concept — a girl in a house. The marriage of this sound design to thoughtful, carefully placed camera movements makes for a horror film that’s a suspenseful slow burn. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMar 9, 2026
As a theatrical experience, it’s lots of fun, making clever use of proven techniques that build tension before releasing it with exploding light bulbs and ghostly figures appearing in the corner of the frame. Read full review
75
The Film StageCaleb HammondJan 30, 2026
After masterfully plotting the slow build of dread, the climax feels rushed and derivative of other, better horror movies. Yet moments in the climax do succeed; the explanation for that banging-on-pipes sound is unnerving. Read full review
74
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 12, 2026
The film works best when it is only Evy and her headphones on the screen, the character’s head (and ours) becoming overwhelmed by some truly impressive, singularly creepy sound design. Read full review
70
The Irish TimesTara BradyApr 10, 2026
The coda veers into the conceptual chaos of weaker, later Paranormal Activity instalments, but it’s a promising start for the director’s proposed trilogy. Keep ’em coming. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMar 13, 2026
Undertone is creepy enough without needing to knit its haunting into its main character’s background so clunkily; ironically, its most effective moments are ones of stylistic indifference. Read full review
70
The RevealKeith PhippsMar 12, 2026
It might be a well-worn tale of demons and satanic beasties at its core, but Undertone’s ingenious form gives it an unnerving intimacy that begins as a dreadful whisper then slowly turns up the volume until it threatens to drown out the rest of the world. Read full review
70
Screen DailyNikki BaughanJan 26, 2026
Exceptional sound design and a superb central performance from The Handmaid’s tale star Nina Kiri, who is almost entirely alone on screen, mean the film casts a compelling spell, even when the narrative begins to succumb to genre cliché in its final reels. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 12, 2026
A testament to the adage that a good filmmaker can make anything out of nothing, Undertone should go in your playlist now. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 12, 2026
No, there’s not much to this thin plot and the monotonous visual limitations don’t deliver the claustrophobia you might expect to heighten the growing dread. But for horror that’s alarming in the most primal, aural and piloerection ways, Undertone hits enough right notes to recommend. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleMar 11, 2026
Kiri is exceptional in carrying a film in which she’s the only talking, present actor. But that a movie so threadbare manages to feel like too much is both the film’s accomplishment and its failure. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineTaylor WilliamsJan 30, 2026
Throughout Undertone, Ian Tuason delights in deploying sound to eerily suggestive ends. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 17, 2026
Weaponising the cinema’s Dolby Atmos into a delivery mechanism for frights is a clever ploy that Undertone never maximises. Read full review
60
VarietySiddhant AdlakhaJan 26, 2026
Although it eventually leans into traditional genre hallmarks, its introductory musings are novel, taking the form of a one-woman performance showcase that makes ingenious use of visual and auditory negative space. Read full review
58
The PlaylistMarshall ShafferMar 13, 2026
For a film so fixated on provoking fear and dread through the medium of audio, it’s naturally strongest when it does not bother to stimulate the eyes at all. Read full review
58
IndieWireChristian ZilkoJan 26, 2026
Unfortunately, Undertone is far more interesting as a phenomenon than an actual movie. Tuason and company deserve to be commended for telling a narrative film on such a small scale, but the finished product fails to deliver a conclusion that’s scary enough to justify its lethargic, slow-burn format. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithMar 13, 2026
The movie generates a pleasing fog of suspense as it makes the audience pay attention to each new audio cue. Seeing the movie in a hushed theater is ideal; viewing it at home would almost certainly bring in distractions that would dilute the experience. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonMar 12, 2026
The film is so committed to its rigors — the two-person cast, the glacial camera pivots, the moody lighting — that it teeters on the line of becoming monotonous. Read full review
50
Screen RantGregory NussenMar 10, 2026
Perhaps it's fitting that a horror film set around a podcast flits in and out of being engaging, since that's more or less the experience of listening to one, but it doesn't exactly make for a cohesive viewing experience. Read full review
50
IGNTom JorgensenMar 10, 2026
Effectively moody, but disjointed and over-reliant on played-out horror audio gags, Undertone sounds better in concept than it plays on screen. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterRichard LawsonJan 26, 2026
As answers to the film’s big questions begin arriving in slapdash fashion, one loses patience for Tuason’s evasive, cluttered storytelling. Read full review
40
Radio TimesTerry StauntonApr 17, 2026
In all fairness, Tuason ups the ante in the last reel, the pedestrian tease of what went before giving way to more palpably spooky shenanigans, but it’s a ludicrously long wait for the yarn to step up a gear that runs the risk of the audience having already given up on the whole affair. Read full review
40
Little White LiesHannah StrongApr 10, 2026
It’s a shame the film that exists around this technical experiment oscillates between ludicrous and tedious, undermining any scares that might be generated through the wonder of creative foley and effective mixing. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 29, 2026
There’s a swirl of creepy noises in A24’s new hyped-up horror Undertone – screaming, gargling, singing, banging – but nothing is quite loud enough to drown out the swirl of films it’s cribbing from. Read full review
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