- Content: “Rather Boring, Anti-Climactic Demonic Nightmare”
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What You Need To Know:
UNDERTONE offers too many rather boring sequences and delivers an anticlimactic, confusing ending. It remains plagued by many scary sounds that fail to resolve or ultimately pay off. The movie ignores the threat to Evy’s pregnancy. Despite references to Jesus and His mother, UNDERTONE promotes an abhorrent occult worldview. Eighteen strong obscenities and two strong profanities also plague UNDERTONE. They severely limit the movie’s appeal to a broad audience, especially given its slow pace, lackluster scenes, weird happenings, and anticlimactic, confusing ending.
Content:
Very strong occult worldview where a skeptical atheist female and her male podcast partner on the phone grow fascinated by a folktale about a female demon that oppresses mothers and destroys babies in and out of the womb (the ending remains anticlimactic, though it suggests the demon wins (the male and female lead investigate what happened to a father and mother who encountered the demon and died, along with their child, though the movie fails to resolve the leads’ situation), but lead female cares for her dying comatose devoutly Catholic mother and the movie features images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus, and crucifixes in the mother’s home where they live and the lead female frequently remembers her mother urging prayer and church attendance (the lead carries guilt about not visiting her mother and praying with her before illness struck);
About 22 obscenities (including 18 “f” words), two strong profanities that mention the name of Jesus, and nine light profanities;
Strong scary violence includes many strange and sometimes loud noises and voices, including some screaming and singing nursery rhymes backwards, plus a woman returns home one time and finds her comatose dying mother inexplicably lying face down on the floor next to her bed;
No sex but unmarried female discovers her pregnancy and considers abortion though she rejects the idea by the movie’s end, but the ending remains pretty anticlimactic and confusing (the father never appears or is identified);
No nudity;
Some alcohol use by young woman and her friend over the phone asks her if she drinks again, implying a past problem , but woman lies and says no (she remains pregnant when she takes a couple swigs during the flick);
No smoking or drugs; and,
Some lying, and a character briefly considers aborting her unborn child but rejects the idea .
More Detail:
Evy, a skeptical atheist female in America, cares for her totally comatose, dying mother, a devout Catholic. She and her male podcast partner in London, Justin, grow fascinated by a folktale about a female demon that oppresses mothers and destroys babies in and out of the womb. They suspect it explains 10 strange audio tapes of a family tormented by a demon. An anonymous person sent the tapes to Justin for their podcast about spooky or unexplained sounds.
Evy and Justin host weekly online sessions around 3 am her time, playing the 10 tapes live or recorded sessions on the podcast. The married couple on the tape parent a young baby, and the father hears the mother say strange things in her sleep. Strange sounds and voices invade the tape recordings, with people singing parts of nursery rhymes forwards, or even backwards. Very scary!
Justin believes he hears the name of some demon from the Middle Ages on the tapes. His research reveals the demon as an alleged female goddess who oppresses mothers and destroys babies in and out of the womb. Is the demon targeting the mother and baby on the tapes? The threat level intensifies after Evy discovers her pregnancy.
UNDERTONE drags with boring sequences, especially in its first half. A measured, meticulous beginning appeals when it immerses viewers into the cinematic experience, as Stanley Kubrick’s BARRY LYBDON demonstrates, but not if the filmmakers linger too long. UNDERTONE also delivers an anticlimactic, confusing ending that doesn’t resolves almost anything. Also, the movie’s scares rely on slowly escalating, strange and even loud noises that, ultimately, add up to nothing, or next to nothing. In addition, the movie fails to take full advantage of Evy’s pregnancy threat.
UNDERTONE’s filmmakers pan the camera slowly or compose shots with dark background behind or next to the female lead. Viewers might expect demonic figures or people lurking in those backgrounds, but they never do. How does that make any sense? It doesn’t! Restraint can sometimes deserve praise but fails to impress here. Of course, the anticlimactic unresolved ending worsens the issue. In fact, many viewers, if not most, will, like MOVIEGUIDE®’s reviewer, feel cheated for both their time and money!
The female lead character’s comatose mother remains a devout Catholic. So, her house contains several images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus, and crucifixes. Also, the female lead remembers her mother asking her to pray with her and attend church before illness struck. However, the daughter eventually confesses to her podcast partner over the phone that she never went, and now she feels extreme guilt. She even tells him, “I killed my mother.” As with the movie’s other major plot points, there’s no resolution to this issue, one way or another. A positive resolution could move viewers to tears of joy. A negative resolution could provoke tears of heartache. Why not take advantage of this? Who knows?
Despite the Christian references, UNDERTONE promotes a strong occult worldview overall. [SPOILERS FOLLOW] Apparently, for example, though the two lead characters never find out the truth, the family on the audio tapes dies under the demon attacks. However, the movie never really reveals Evy or Justin’s fates, the two podcasters. Here, the ending confuses viewers with an anticlimactic jumble of images and sounds. As such, the ending not only wastes the viewer’s time, but it also undermines the two lead performances, especially Nina Kiri’s portrayal of Evy.
MOVIEGUIDE® generally believes that, whatever kind of movie a filmmaker creates, it’s better for the movie, and its artistic, entertainment, spiritual, psychological, ideological, and financial success, if you have a victorious or happy ending. However, if the ending remains sad, tragic or bittersweet, filmmakers should craft it as meaningfully and profoundly as possible. Otherwise, what’s the point? Anticlimactic endings sometimes spark thought or even inspired reactions, or even further and fruitful discussions, but way more often than not, they leave viewers unsatisfied, confused or, worse, really, really angry.
At least 18 strong obscenities and two strong profanities also plague UNDERTONE. They probably will severely limit the movie’s appeal to a broad audience, especially considering its slow parts, lackluster scenes, weird and unexplained happenings, and anticlimactic, confusing ending.
