More often than not, once we movie nerds proclaim {that a} film wants to be seen on the massive display, it is due to its magnificent imagery. However what about that different side of our cherished aural and visible medium — you understand, the sound? One of many scariest horror flicks of 2026 up to now, the A24-backed “Undertone,” instantly felt like one thing you needed to see in a theater because of its sound design alone when it premiered earlier this 12 months. Now, although, individuals are both revisiting or catching up on author/director Ian Tuason’s spooky podcast image for the primary time at residence on HBO Max, and I can personally affirm that it is nonetheless lots chilling, even with out assistance from a theatrical encompass sound system.
“Undertone” dropped on HBO Max on June 26, 2026, and it rapidly shot to the highest of the streamer’s most-watched charts within the U.S. simply a few days later (per FlixPatrol). The movie stars Nina Kiri (whom chances are you’ll know for enjoying Alma on “The Handmaid’s Story”) as Evangeline “Evy” Babic, a podcaster who’s caring for her mom (Michèle Duquet) whereas the latter is on her deathbed. Tuason was really impressed to make “Undertone” after caring for his real-life mother and father after they had been identified with terminal most cancers (therefore his heartfelt, written tribute to them on the finish of the movie’s closing credit), and he even shot it in his childhood residence in Canada. However as personally significant because the film clearly is to its creator, it is also fairly completed from a technical standpoint (as our personal Chris Evangelista famous in his “Undertone” assessment for /Movie).
Undertone continues to be lots creepy if you watch it at residence
Few ordeals are extra hellish than overseeing a liked one within the remaining stage of their life. You sit there, desperately wanting their ache to finish but wracked with self-loathing since you simply need the entire thing to be over. Evy, nonetheless, has a very arduous go of it in “Undertone” since she’s a lapsed Catholic whose mom stays deeply religious, which created distance between them previous to the latter’s sickness. Having to spend hour after hour in her mom’s home, itself crammed with spiritual knickknacks and gadgets, solely compounds the guilt that she’s already wrestling with.
Nonetheless, whereas Evy’s storyline provides “Undertone” extra substance, it is the nighttime scenes of her recording the titular podcast — an audio present the place she investigates allegedly supernatural incidents along with her co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco), who by no means seems on display — that make this film a must-see. The pair spend many of the movie listening to a petrifying string of audio recordsdata anonymously despatched to them and detailing a supposedly actual haunting, and it is right here that “Undertone” really shines. Ian Tuason properly by no means exhibits us what’s taking place because the recordsdata play, leaving our creativeness and Nina Kiri’s efficiency to do the remainder. He and his cinematographer, Graham Beasley, additionally do an beautiful job of weaponizing the unfavorable house round Evy. The digicam usually slowly pans backwards and forwards, inviting us to look into the shrouded corners of the movie’s singular, claustrophobic setting and surprise if one thing is mendacity there in wait.
Does “Undertone” work finest in a theater? In all probability, however it’s a testomony to how properly it is made that it’ll nonetheless scare your socks off from the consolation of your own home. Stream it on HBO Max, and you may see what I imply.
