Undertone: The Best Horror Movie Since Hereditary
Undertone is built on inversion — in the camerawork, the sound, the religious imagery — and it's so dense with detail that one viewing isn't enough. 5/5, go see it in theaters.
Rating: 5 / 5
I think this is the best horror movie since Hereditary. On the edge of my seat the whole time, and the more I sit with it the more that holds up.
The inversion thing
The whole movie is built around inversion. Reversal. Things flipped inside out. And it’s not just thematic — the filmmaking commits to it on every level. The camera rotates clockwise in some sequences and counterclockwise in others, and I’m pretty sure that rotation is tied to the demon and the narrative reversals. The angles Evie is shot from change partway through the film. I haven’t fully figured out why yet, but you can feel it. Shots going up the stairs, then later going down. Mirrors everywhere.
Every frame feels deliberate and considered, and the density of it is kind of overwhelming on a first watch.
Sound design
The sound design is genuinely unnerving. Horror lives and dies on audio and Undertone knows it. The tension works on you auditorily just as much as visually — there’s something in the soundscape that feels like it’s reversing on itself, pulling the same inversion trick as the camerawork. Not jump-scare stingers. Sustained, creeping dread that gets under your skin before you realize it’s there.
I’m convinced there’s a structural logic to how the audio inverts across scenes. I need streaming access and headphones to confirm.
Religious imagery and old photos
The movie is packed with religious iconography and these old-timey photographs that I haven’t fully unpacked yet. They clearly tie into the inversion theme — sacred things turned profane, the past intruding on the present, devotional images made deeply wrong. It’s the kind of detail that you catch in glimpses on a first viewing and that I think will keep unfolding on rewatches.
Why this works
What connects this to Hereditary for me is the type of horror it’s doing. Creepiness over gore. Atmosphere over shock. It reminds me of why I love creepy story podcasts — so much is left to the imagination, and that’s exactly what makes it terrifying. The tension never lets up, and it earns all of it.
Go see this in theaters
5 out of 5. The sound mix alone demands a proper room. The camera work, the framing, the set dressing — all of it is so considered and precise, and that level of care in horror almost never happens. See it before it leaves theaters.