Undertone is one of the most unique new movies this year, because its focus has largely been on its creepy sound design.
The movie follows a woman who hosts a paranormal podcast with her friend. She is a skeptic while he is a believer, but events that unfold throughout the movie make her start to question everything.
Sound is at the forefront of Undertone, and the result is terrifying. Evy's fun paranormal podcast soon turns dark as she experiences noises that she had always brushed off as myths.
I spoke to Undertone's director, Ian Tuason, about why sound was such an important focus for his first feature film.
He said, "I do think audio is 90% of what scares people in horror movies. And I also have a background in creating virtual reality experiences, and I really wanted to use what I learned there, creating 3D soundscapes.
"And using that for a movie, putting people into a space and playing around with the direction of the sounds, and also how far away the sounds are, how close they are. Whether the sound's on top of you or shaking your seat, stuff like that."
Undertone definitely left an impression on me, and I mentioned to Tuason that I couldn't wear my noise-canceling headphones on the walk home from the theater because I was too freaked out.
When I asked if he'd had a similar experience after working on such a creepy, sound-focused movie, he told me, "You know what, I actually did recently. I put on headphones, and then I said, 'No, I'll just take them off, and I'll just I'll just watch the movie without headphones. That way I know what's behind me.'"
Periods of silence are also an effective horror tool, especially when you're building suspense and tension. Tuason spoke about his thoughts on jump scares and the element of surprise, as well as his favorite shocking movie moment.
He said, "Jump scares, I don't really enjoy them too much. You know, you could surprise someone, but it's far more uncomfortable to tense someone up. And keep them tense."
"So if I had to choose a favorite jump scare, I like the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey when Hal kills the astronaut, and then we see the astronaut fly across the window, but we hear the hissing of the oxygen.
"And then, when we cut outside, it's the dead silence of space, and we just see the astronaut spinning, trying to put his oxygen thing back into his helmet, and he dies. That silence was pretty jarring. For me, that was kind of a jump scare."
Undertone is best experienced in a theater with great sound or, if you're feeling brave enough, at home with headphones when the movie gets a streaming release.
If you do manage that last one, you're definitely braver than me.
