An overwhelming buzz has surrounded Undertone since its premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2025, where it enthralled and terrified genre fans alike. The journey of Ian Tuason’s directorial debut since then has been nothing short of incredible, going on to screen at Sundance and be picked up by acclaimed production company A24 for its theatrical run. The single-location horror flick follows Evy (Nina Kiri, a woman who hosts a paranormal podcast), where she is the skeptic to his believer. Evy records the podcast with her friend, Justin (Adam DiMarco), from her childhood home, where she has moved to act as caregiver to her dying mother (Michèle Duquet). The film begins as Evy and Justin are sent recordings of a married couple (Keana Lyn Bastidas and Jeff Yung) experiencing terrifying noises and phenomena in their home. Ahead of the film’s release, STARBURST MAGAZINE spoke to Tuason and Kiri about Undertone’s overwhelming success, filming in Tuason’s childhood home, and the film’s unique sound that has gripped viewers.
STARBURST: Undertone follows two podcasters who are hosting a supernatural show. How familiar were both of you with shows like that before making the film?
Ian Tuason: I was pretty familiar with these YouTubers that just spoke, so they weren’t on camera or anything, and they would just talk about creepypastas. Their videos were kind of like the beginning of the Undertone podcast with the creepy music. I’m a big fan of creepypastas, but I haven’t really listened to a podcast where a sceptic and a believer are debating. I do listen to a lot of other podcasts where there are two opposing belief systems debating each other. I used to listen to a lot of sports podcasts, Yankee fans versus Boston Red Sox Ball, or stuff like that.
Nina Kiri: I don’t listen to horror podcasts as much. I listen to a lot of podcasts, but the way I listen to things is just to have them in the background. I listen to more real-life stories from people. Jonathan Goldstein’s Heavyweight is one of my favourite ones. But they’re not horror. I have enough horror!
In the narrative, there’s a lot of the occult. How much research went into crafting the lore of Undertone? Is it something that you’d found that already existed, or was it something that came from an idea elsewhere?
Ian: I was always afraid of demons because of The Exorcist and growing up Catholic, so I wanted a demon. I didn’t know which demon I was going to use. Once the story started forming about Evy being pregnant, I needed a female demon who wanted her baby. Then I found Abyzou, and it was perfect, so thank you, Abyzou!
Nina, what was it about the role of Evy that attracted you to Undertone?
Nina: Reading the script was a crazy experience because that feeling of claustrophobia that you feel when you’re watching the movie, you really feel that when you’re reading the script. I almost experienced that more when reading the script than when I watched the movie. It really impressed me because it’s so rare to read a script that you just can’t stop because the tension is so natural. You’re with one person in one place, and suddenly you’re looking over your shoulder. But it also scared me, and I was kind of like, if this isn’t the right people, then I don’t know if I can get through this. When I met Ian the next morning, I was like, “Okay, they’re so cool. I feel so safe around them. I know I can go to these places and do this in this type of environment”.
The themes Undertone deals with are very heavy. Nina, how did you handle that, and did you do anything while filming to get out of Evy’s mindset?
Nina: I had my room upstairs, which was my lair. Natalia [Andrea Pozo, makeup artist] and I would just hang out there, not even talking. She’d be watching Netflix on her phone, and I would be reading my book. We all had such a great rapport. It felt so fun, and to me it was really light, but I think that’s because it’s the middle of winter, we’re all going to be in the same space. Everybody had the same feeling of “let’s just have a light, fun attitude in between so that we can get this all made in the best way possible”. It was such a positive environment, and I think everybody felt that they could say their piece. Anybody on the crew could be like, “I have this idea, maybe we can try this”. And people would listen. That’s all because Ian set up that environment of trusting everybody enough to do their jobs, and there’s a huge freedom in that.
It was very effective to film in just one location, and that location was your parents’ home, Ian. What were the pros and the limitations of this?
Ian: I wrote it in the house! So I was taking photos of every shot, putting the storyboards together, all in that house. It was very intentional, every single shot. And I had a lot of time to craft the movie because of that. Because it’s my childhood home, I think people felt at home there. There was my Banana Splits light switch thing still up, and then some of my Highlights magazines were on the bookshelf. Some of my friends who knew me before, like Graham Beasley [director of photography], would be curious and ask if this was where I would write or read my comic books. We had a chef come in every day, Mama Kay, who cooked up some home cooking. So it did feel like a family.
The use of sound is amazing; Ian, you’ve worked extensively in sound design. How did you craft the unique sound of the film?
Ian: I worked in virtual reality for a bit, so I used to create 3D soundscapes in 360 degrees. I was very intentional with the direction of each sound. When I got into the post sound studio, I was really specific with the sound mixer and where all the sounds would be to create that soundscape around the viewer. That was the intention from the start, just because I was already experienced in it, and my experience gave me the ideas behind the film and why I wanted to make it.
Something that makes Undertone so scary is the fact that we never see the demon. Ian, why did you choose to do that, and Nina, what was it like to act around and react to something that isn’t there?
Nina: For me, it felt like the unravelling of Evy was super real, and it felt a lot more internal. In the movie, you see the exterior of that with the panning into the empty spaces and what that does to people’s imagination. But being in that situation, I think I was in a heightened state of getting freaked out by everything. When I could hone in on what exactly she’s going through moment to moment and day to day, that felt really powerful. It had nothing to do with external, it was really an internal breakdown, which was scary to me anyway.
Ian: I’m always scared of things I can’t see. Definitely imagination. Paranormal Activity scared me, and The Blair Witch Project. The Exorcist scared me more before we saw her possessed. What the demon was doing to her in bed when she was doing sit-ups, and her face was slamming onto her sheets. I remember lying in bed at night as a kid thinking, “When’s my bed going to shake?” The imagination is the scariest thing that I could use in Undertone.
The reaction people have had to the film has been overwhelming, with Undertone being branded the scariest film of 2026 by several outlets. What has that been like for you? Did you ever have an inkling that it would take off the way it did, or has it come as a complete surprise how people have really taken to the film?
Nina: Ian did, but I didn’t know to what extent. I remember being at the screening at Sundance and a woman going, “Oh”. Like a guttural moan. It was so visceral, and there were so many things like that. That was a really interesting, anthropological experience to see everybody go through watching this movie for the first time.
Ian: I was living, breathing this movie for a few years, and I knew exactly what it was. I felt like it would’ve scared me if I didn’t make it, so then I knew that it was going to do well. I didn’t know exactly how well until things started happening one by one, like the right people coming on board, Nina just nailing every scene, even our gaffer. He had this app that controlled all the lights, and he had gotten that right before we hired him. I was ready to hide in the corner and use a dimmer for the lamp, but we didn’t have to do that. So when I saw everything lining up, I was like, “Wow, okay. So, pretty much everything that I imagined is happening perfectly. I wouldn’t be surprised if everything that I imagined would happen afterwards, happens”. And then it did. A24 was the favourite in my head to win. And then Sundance was where I thought we would premiere. I’m glad we premiered Fantasia because if we didn’t, then none of this would have happened. A lot of strange things happened. I met Eli Roth on the street a couple of days after we premiered at Fantasia, as he was texting his friend that he was about to watch Undertone. I said, “I just premiered my horror film”. And then he goes, “What is it?” And I told him, Undertone. And then he shows me his phone. And at that point, that’s when I had him. He was under my spell at that point.
UNDERTONE is out now in UK cinemas.
