A24’s Undertone, the $500K horror debut that turned headphones into a weapon, lands on HBO Max on June 26, and its journey there is wilder than the movie itself.
Evy (Nina Kiri), a skeptical paranormal podcaster, is holed up in her childhood home caring for her dying mother when her show receives ten anonymous audio recordings that start bleeding into real life. Director Ian Tuason, making his feature debut, shot the whole thing inside his actual parents’ house while caregiving for them, and told Variety the experience basically reversed the haunting: “The house got haunted, and I had to live in it.”
Undertone premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in July 2025, where it ignited a bidding war. A24 closed a seven-figure deal a few weeks later, before the film went on to screen at Sundance that January. It hit theaters in March and turned its $500K budget into nearly $22 million at the box office. It currently sits at 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, Certified Fresh.
Why critics are obsessed. It’s all about the sound. RogerEbert.com called it a showcase that announces Tuason as a major talent; Collider went further, floating it as a real contender for the Best Sound Oscar at the 2027 ceremony. Not everyone’s sold, The Guardian gave it a more tepid 2/5, lumping it in with Hereditary, Paranormal Activity, and a handful of other genre touchstones as well-trodden ground, but the overall consensus leans firmly in its favor.
The buzz already landed Tuason his next gig, directing Blumhouse’s eighth Paranormal Activity installment, a franchise this film clearly has in its bones.
Stream it on HBO Max starting June 26.
