A24 has another horror genre winner on their hands, Undertone. Writer-director Ian Tuason whipped up one of the most chilling films of 2026 for a reported $500,000 production budget, and it features a wildly commanding lead performance that should earn the star “scream queen” status. It’s The Handmaid’s Tale’s Nina Kiri as Evy Babic, one half of the Undertone Podcast duo. While living with and caring for her comatose mother (Michèle Duquet), Evy takes breaks in the middle of the night to podcast with Justin (Adam DiMarco). The two are used to exploring supernatural occurrences and enjoy leaning into their roles as the skeptic and the believer, respectively, but when they receive an anonymous email containing ten audio files, Evy is forced to consider the fact that they may be the real deal.
With Undertone now playing in theaters nationwide, Kiri joined me for a Collider Ladies Night interview to discuss her journey as an actor thus far, including her unforgettable run on The Handmaid’s Tale, before digging into some of Undertone’s most chilling moments.
How Exactly Did They Film ‘Undertone?’
“Those recordings were so haunting and basically did the work for me.”
Undertone is an unusual production, and it offered Kiri a rare opportunity as an actor. The movie is essentially a one-woman show. Visually, nearly the entire movie rests on Kiri’s shoulders. The camera follows her and her alone as she moves from caring for her mother upstairs to podcasting with Justin downstairs, during which, we only hear DiMarco’s voice.
How exactly did Tuason orchestrate a solo shoot for Kiri that still gave her all the resources she needed to deliver such a natural and compelling performance? Here’s how Kiri described the process:
“For the Justin scenes, there was an actor named Ryan [Turner] who was upstairs for that whole first week. I read lines with him in between takes, and then every single time we’d film a Justin/Evy podcast scene, it was a live conversation and a live phone call, like a real phone call. He’s upstairs, and I’m downstairs. That was so helpful to me. And this was something [producer] Dan [Slater] had already planned. This was something they already were like, ‘Don’t worry, we have this actor coming in.’ And he was such a good actor, and he was so, so giving. He knew the amount that I had to do every day and was just like, ‘Anytime, let’s run lines.’ Just having that be a real person that I’m talking to, and to have it be an actor, was so invaluable.”
Another choice that proved especially effective? Kiri didn’t get to hear Undertone’s haunting audio files until Tuason called “action.”
“Another thing they did that I really appreciated is they’re like, ‘We’re going to get you to listen to the recordings as they happen.’ So I didn’t know what the recordings would sound like until we started shooting the scenes. Those recordings are so good. It’s Jeff [Yung] and Keana [Lyn Bastidas], the two actors who play those characters. I think those recordings and how good they are, and how good of a job the actors did, are such a backbone to this movie. Anyone who watches that will know that. But those recordings were so haunting and basically did the work for me, because it was me hearing them for the first time.”
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Is That a True Oner During the ‘Undertone’ Ending?
“There’s stakes to every second, and you can’t opt out.”
Soon after listening to the final recording, the situation spirals and Tuason and co. deliver a downright epic oner that takes the viewer through the first floor of Evy’s home as the supernatural consumes her world.
The lengthy oner is so ambitious and impressive that it’s fair to wonder, did they really manage to pull it off in one take or does the shot contain hidden edits? Kiri assured me, “That was one take.” She added, “That one long moment was amazing. So fulfilling. There’s something about the one takes where everyone’s like, [screams], because there are stakes to every second, and you can’t opt out.”
While there is a thrill to daring to do such a shot, it also comes with a significant amount of pressure. One of the greatest challenges for Kiri? Nailing all the technical requirements, but without ever losing the sky-high emotion such a situation demands.
“It’s sometimes unclear when so much of that move is me turning, you’re like, ‘Will I get seen in that?’ And then, ‘Am I being too technical and then not giving a good performance?’ I don’t even know if it was the take that we ended up going with, speaking about, ‘I thought that was great,’ and then it sucked, or, ‘I thought that sucked,’ and then it was great. I’m pretty sure the one that is used in the movie, I was like, ‘I need to do it again.’ And they’re like, ‘Nina, that was great.’ I’m like, ‘No!’ Because the technicality becomes so intense that then you’re suddenly like, ‘Wait, was I supposed to do this at this point?’ And then you get tripped up about that I think, and then you forget, like, ‘Oh, wait, I was supposed to look in this direction.’ And then you’re like, ‘That sucked!’ So, that part was hard, just mixing what are the emotions of the scene with what are the specific technical aspects of what I’m doing right now to make sure that I’m not in the way of the camera? But I find those types of situations thrilling.”
What Happens to Justin at the End of ‘Undertone?’
Is anyone okay at the end of this movie?
We see that things don’t end well for Evy, but what about Justin? We know Justin remains alive at the end of the film, but will he ever be okay again after this experience?
Kiri has a grim outlook on Justin’s future. He didn’t summon anything, so she does confirm that he gets to live on, but she thinks he’s left decimated spiritually. “I think maybe this breaks him in some way. I’m not sure, because he’s very breakable.”
Looking for even more on the making of Undertone? You can find just that in Kiri’s full Collider Ladies Night interview at the top of this article!
- Release Date
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March 13, 2026
- Runtime
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84 minutes
- Director
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Ian Tuason
Cast
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Kristen Holden-Ried
Justin
