WARNING: This article contains spoilers and sensitive topics. Reader discretion is advised.

A lot of horror films have attempted the narrative of a demon possession, but none of them have attempted it like Ian Tuason’s “Undertone.”​

“Undertone” follows podcast host Evy, played by Nika Kiri, who covers scary content with her co-star Justin (whose face we never actually see). Evy moves in to care for her dying mother, but continues to host the podcast from her mother’s home. While recording an episode, Evy and Justin receive recordings of a pregnant couple's paranormal encounters, and, slowly but surely, Evy and the audience discover that the couple’s story parallels Evy’s with each tape pushing her toward madness.

While some aspects of the movie were predictable, others were obscure and felt unfinished. At the beginning of the film, the cryptic email sent to the podcast hosts included the word “tenet.” The movie doesn’t tell you this, but the word tenet is defined as a principle or belief, especially one of the main principles of a religion. Religion is a major aspect of this movie, with Evy’s mother being extremely religious and religious artifacts hanging in every corner of the house. If you’re also a cinephile, you might remember Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” which taught us the word is also spelled the same backwards as forwards, which stirred my conspiracy theorist brain into what this could mean about the plot of “Undertone.”

Since the first showing of the word “tenet,” I somewhat knew where the movie was headed. In my head, we were about to see the sound recordings from the pregnant couple line up with the film's events in descending order. Another thought I had is that we would, at some point, see time reverse, especially with the steady ticking of a clock we can hear whenever Evy has her headphones off. Towards the end of the movie, we do see the wall clock in Evy’s mother’s house stop and reverse, but I wish we had seen more explicit examples of this concept.

The first mention of a demon amidst all the religious context in the movie was while Evy and Justin listened to one of the voice recordings sent in the ominous email. In the voice recording, you can hear a woman say the word “Abyzou.” In Near Eastern and European folklore, Abyzou is a female demon who causes miscarriages, infant mortality and stillbirths out of jealousy for being infertile herself.

​This concept isn’t new; movies like “The Conjuring” also feature demons, but “Undertone” uniquely relies on sound to portray possession. Creating a sonic nightmare on film requires skill.

This movie didn’t need jumpscares or sudden loud noises to scare the audience; its portrayal of Evy’s descent into madness left the audience unsure of what they would hear or feel next. The quiet, hushed whispers you hear in the dark can sometimes cause a lot more fear than loud, jarring sounds. In “Undertone,” we hear sounds like someone praying in the dark, a clock ticking and water dripping, which makes us more alert and almost anticipate something more.

With the mention of “The Conjuring” film above, it’s important to mention that “The Conjuring” took home a budget of $20 million; “Undertone” spent $500,000. This further shows that you don’t need much to deliver a big scare; you need to know how to utilize the tools we already have, like sound.

For the ultimate experience, make sure to watch this movie in a Dolby and/or IMAX screening to fully immerse yourself in the film's atmosphere, starting Friday, March 13.