Undertone Teaser: Nina Kiri Leads A24’s Next Psychological Horror Obsession
A24 is back with another unsettling descent into psychological horror, and this time it’s riding a disturbing frequency you won’t be able to shake. The official teaser for Undertone has dropped, and it’s already positioning the film as a must-watch for fans of slow-burn terror, haunting sound design, and reality-bending storytelling.
Starring Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Jeff Yung, Keana Lyn, Kris Holden-Ried, and Michèle Duquet, Undertone follows a podcaster whose job is to dive into the eerie and unexplained. But when the horror she covers for listeners begins echoing her own life, boundaries between work, home, and the supernatural collapse in deeply personal and terrifying ways.
A Podcast Host, A Dying Mother, And A Haunting That Hits Too Close
At the center of Undertone is a podcast host who specializes in spooky content. She moves back home to care for her dying mother, expecting emotional strain, not spectral interference. Her world shifts when she receives a series of recordings from a pregnant couple documenting their paranormal experiences.
What starts as compelling material for her show quickly becomes a mirror. Each recording doesn’t just creep her out; it reflects her own story. The parallels tighten with every tape, taking her from detached storyteller to desperate participant in a narrative that feels pre-written and inescapable.
This setup taps into the power of found audio horror, where what you hear is more terrifying than what you see. It’s an approach that allows Undertone to play with perception, memory, and the unreliability of senses in a way that feels intimate and invasive.
Nina Kiri Steps Into The Spotlight
Nina Kiri, known to many genre fans for her work in dark, emotionally charged roles, seems perfectly cast as the increasingly unmoored podcaster. The Undertone teaser gives quick flashes of her performance: tender moments with her mother, intense listening sessions with the tapes, and mounting dread that radiates off her in every frame.
Her character appears to sit at the crossroads of grief, responsibility, and obsession. Caring for a dying parent already brings emotional exhaustion and unresolved history. Adding a paranormal mystery that tracks eerily close to her own life raises the stakes beyond typical jump-scare horror. This is emotional horror as much as supernatural, and Kiri looks ready to anchor that complexity.
A24-Style Horror: Atmosphere Over Cheap Scares
Undertone fits squarely into A24’s signature approach to genre storytelling. Instead of leaning on constant jump scares, it centers slow-building tension, character-driven dread, and heavy atmospheric vibes. The teaser suggests:
Subtle, sensory-driven horror: distorted audio, whispers, feedback, and unnerving silence all seem like core tools in the film’s arsenal.
Psychological unravelling: we’re not just watching a haunting; we’re watching a mind gradually lose its grip as external phenomena and internal fears start to synchronize.
Layered storytelling: the dual narrative of the podcaster and the pregnant couple, linked through the recordings, hints at parallel timelines, repeating patterns, or something more metaphysical at work.
The result looks like a horror experience where the real fear doesn’t come from monsters in the dark, but from the chilling idea that your life might not be entirely your own story to tell.
Tapes, Trauma, And The Horror Of Hearing Too Much
Audio has always had a unique place in horror. The imagination fills in what you can’t see, and that’s often far worse than any on-screen creature. Undertone leans into this tradition with its mysterious recordings from a pregnant couple battling the unknown.
Each tape arrives like a new episode of a nightmare podcast, and each one drags the protagonist further toward madness. This device raises a lot of tantalizing questions the teaser only hints at:
Are the recordings genuine, or are they manipulated?
Is the couple real, or are they somehow an echo or premonition of the podcaster’s own fate?
Are these hauntings external entities or manifestations of repressed fear and unresolved family trauma?
By tying the supernatural to deeply human experiences—grief, parenthood, and caretaking—Undertone positions itself as more than a simple ghost story. It’s horror that hits where it hurts most: family, identity, and sanity.
A Cast And Director With Genre Cred
Alongside Nina Kiri, Undertone features Adam DiMarco, Jeff Yung, Keana Lyn, Kris Holden-Ried, and Michèle Duquet, bringing together a cast capable of making the horror feel grounded and lived-in. These aren’t cardboard victims lining up for shock value; from the teaser’s brief glimpses, they look like real people swept into something overwhelming and inexplicable.
Director Ian Tuason appears to be steering the film toward that sweet spot between intimate character drama and nerve-wracking genre film. If the teaser is any indication, Undertone will rely heavily on visual restraint, moody lighting, and carefully controlled pacing that rewards patient, detail-oriented viewers.
Why Undertone Should Be On Your Horror Radar
Between its concept and its creative team, Undertone is shaping up to be essential viewing for fans of psychological horror, A24’s elevated genre approach, and audio-driven scares. Here’s what makes it stand out:
A unique horror hook based on recordings and parallel lives, rather than a standard haunted house premise
A lead performance from Nina Kiri that promises emotional intensity and vulnerability
A focus on family, caretaking, and grief that adds emotional weight to the scares
The distinct A24 atmosphere that favors tension, unease, and lingering questions over easy answers
With its US release set for March 13, 2026, Undertone is lining up to be one of the more talked-about horror releases of the year, especially among fans who love their scares layered with meaning and mystery.
If you’re into psychological horror, eerie soundscapes, and A24’s brand of deeply unsettling storytelling, Undertone needs to be on your watchlist. Stay tuned to BlueBoxNERD to get the latest from nerd culture.