Review: The sound design is the star in undertone, a podcast thriller with too much dead air

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Everyone’s getting into podcasts — even demons.“undertone,” a muted, personal and static microbudget horror debut by Ian Tuason, takes place in the writer-director’s actual childhood home where he tended to both of his parents before they died.Both hospice and inspiration, it’s a stifling place decorated with floral wallpaper and crucifixes.

The pain and exhaustion and grief are so real and oppressive, the camera never dares set a foot outside.Upstairs, Evy (Nina Kiri), watches over her own terminally ill mother (Michèle Duquet).Tuason funneled his emotional gloom into this movie; Evy co-hosts a horror podcast with her overseas best friend Justin (voiced by Adam DiMarco).

“This is the only thing keeping me sane right now,” she says.They’re words she’ll regret within the week.Kiri and DiMarco have the comfortable, convincing chemistry of two old pals who have done a show for a while.

One snippet seems to be an episode on Elisa Lam, the real-life tourist found dead in the rooftop water tank of Los Angeles’ Cecil Hotel.There’s also a reference to a website with a red-faced ghoul who hypnotizes victims into cutting off their ears.

The latter may be Tuason seeding his idea for a sequel.Movies Our three Sundance correspondents, Amy Nicholson, Mark Olsen and Joshua Rothkopf, pick their favorites from this year’s lineup and reflect on memories of Park City.Here the central story is that Justin, who lives in London, has received an email with 10 audio files recorded by a couple named Mike and Jessa (Jeff Yung and Keana Lyn Bastidas) who are trying to understand what she’s saying in her sleep.

The sender is unknown.(Possibly an evil spirit hoping for the exposure of a mattress ad?) Justin, the believer, is instantly alarmed by how these eerie tapes escalate from cute banter to ghostly crying babies and backward incantations.

Evy is the skeptic who dismisse...