Writer/director Ian Tuason and Undertone stars Nina Kiri and Adam DiMarco are opening up about the layers of sound and emotion that helped create the A24 film’s unsettling atmosphere.
Tuason told Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum that he “always knew” the film would rely more on its auditory storytelling than its visuals.
“There are specific places I wanted to put the baby crying or the loud bang, and I would write it in relation to the frame,” he said. “So it’d be frame left, there’s a whisper. And then I gave that to the sound mixer, so he knew where to place every sound. That was really important to the experience we were creating.”
Nina Kiri on the film’s claustrophobic tension
Kiri, who plays podcaster Evy, said the fact that much of the horror unfolds in one room heightens the film’s tension. The situation becomes even more emotionally intense because the frightening events also affect Evy’s ailing mother (Michèle Duquet), whom she is caring for.
“I think it all happening in one place really brings a form of claustrophobia that just happens when you enter the space,” she said. “The setting really brings a lot without me doing much. And then that feeling, with all of the Mama scenes, there’s so much caregiver parental guilt. I know that feeling of parental guilt; I guess we all kind of do. But then that’s mixed with Catholic guilt and that feeling of guilt is so familiar to me that the scenes with Mama just felt very natural.”
Adam DiMarco performs entirely through voice
DiMarco, whose physical presence is not shown on camera, adds to the film’s tension through voice performance alone. He said the role required a slightly different approach compared with his usual on-screen work.
“I think there’s just such a freedom I found in not having to worry about being on camera,” he said. “Also, just the challenge of only getting to get your performance across with your voice without micro expressions or physicality, which, you know, I love being a physical actor… but it was very freeing ’cause I’m also like, ‘Oh, they can cut around any of this. It’s just gonna be sound.’ So I was throwing lots of options out there.”
Watch the full interview below.
Undertone follows what happens after the host of a popular paranormal podcast receives horrifying recordings and plays them for her audience. The film also stars Keana Lyn Bastidas and Jeff Yung.
Undertone is now in theaters.