A24's 2026 Supernatural Horror Movie Is Taking Over HBO Max
by Sandy Schaefer · /FilmMost of the time, when we film nerds proclaim that a movie needs to be seen on the big screen, it's because of its magnificent imagery. But what about that other aspect of our cherished aural and visual medium — you know, the sound? One of the scariest horror flicks of 2026 so far, the A24-backed "Undertone," immediately felt like something you had to see in a theater due to its sound design alone when it premiered earlier this year. Now, though, people are either revisiting or catching up on writer/director Ian Tuason's spooky podcast picture for the first time at home on HBO Max, and I can personally confirm that it's still plenty chilling, even without the aid of a theatrical surround sound system.
"Undertone" dropped on HBO Max on June 26, 2026, and it quickly shot to the top of the streamer's most-watched charts in the U.S. just a couple of days later (per FlixPatrol). The film stars Nina Kiri (whom you may know for playing Alma on "The Handmaid's Tale") as Evangeline "Evy" Babic, a podcaster who is caring for her mother (Michèle Duquet) while the latter is on her deathbed. Tuason was actually inspired to make "Undertone" after caring for his real-life parents when they were diagnosed with terminal cancer (hence his heartfelt, written tribute to them at the end of the film's closing credits), and he even shot it in his childhood home in Canada. But as personally meaningful as the movie obviously is to its creator, it's also quite accomplished from a technical standpoint (as our own Chris Evangelista noted in his "Undertone" review for /Film).
Undertone is still plenty creepy when you watch it at home
Few ordeals are more hellish than overseeing a loved one in the final stage of their life. You sit there, desperately wanting their pain to end yet wracked with self-loathing because you just want the whole thing to be over. Evy, however, has a particularly hard go of it in "Undertone" since she's a lapsed Catholic whose mother remains deeply spiritual, which created distance between them prior to the latter's illness. Having to spend hour after hour in her mother's house, itself filled with religious knickknacks and items, only compounds the guilt that she's already wrestling with.
Still, while Evy's storyline gives "Undertone" more substance, it's the nighttime scenes of her recording the titular podcast — an audio show where she investigates allegedly supernatural incidents with her co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco), who never appears on screen — that make this movie a must-see. The pair spend most of the film listening to a petrifying string of audio files anonymously sent to them and detailing a supposedly real haunting, and it's here that "Undertone" truly shines. Ian Tuason wisely never shows us what's happening as the files play, leaving our imagination and Nina Kiri's performance to do the rest. He and his cinematographer, Graham Beasley, also do an exquisite job of weaponizing the negative space around Evy. The camera often slowly pans back and forth, inviting us to peer into the shrouded corners of the film's singular, claustrophobic setting and wonder if something is lying there in wait.
Does "Undertone" work best in a theater? Probably, but it's a testament to how well it's made that it will still scare your socks off from the comfort of your home. Stream it on HBO Max, and you'll see what I mean.