UNDERTONE

The film starts in the home of Evangeline “Evy” Babig (Nina Kiri), who is caring for her ailing mother Evelyn (Michele Duquet) and singing lullabies to her, like “Baa Baa Black Sheep”.

At around 2:30AM, Evy calls her friend, Justin Manuel (voice of Adam DiMarco), to start recording their weekly horror-themed podcast, “The Undertone”. Evy is the skeptic as they discuss supernatural events, while Justin is the true believer. Before getting into the show, they talk about Evy’s mother’s condition, as well as how her boyfriend Darren (voice of Ryan Turner) barely helps.

The duo starts their show with Justin mentioning a viral video called “I Feel Wonderful”, which is just an image of a smiling woman that appears to slowly distort, and allegedly made over 90 people commit suicide. Justin them sends Evy an email containing ten audio files that was sent to him from an anonymous source, each one featuring a couple named Jessa and Mike (voices of Keana Lyn Bastidas and Jeff Yung). They play the first audio clip has Mike recording Jessa talking and singing “London Bridge” in her sleep. The second file has Jessa sleepwalking and playing the same song in reverse. When Justin plays it again, it sounds like Jessa whispering “Mike kill all”. This prompts Justin to search up Eleanor of Provence, who played a role in the construction of London Bridge and lost all nine of her children. It was said that she feared the bridge would collapse, so she ordered orphans to be buried within the foundation. He then looks up “Baa Baa Black Sheep” for hidden meanings, learning of the dark meaning of the song.

Justin plays the third file, where Jessa wakes Mike up after hearing something. It turns out to be the water running. Evy starts to feel unsettled by the background noises, believing they are coming from her own home. Evy and Justin end their episode for the night and agree to continue in a few days.

The next day, Evy wakes up with morning sickness and later schedules an appointment. Evelyn’s nurse shows up and tells Evy that her breath is making the “death rattle” noise, hinting that her time is coming. Throughout the week, Evy has to take extra care of her mother, from cleaning her up after soiling herself, to helping her back into bed after she falls out. In one of her drawers, Evy finds a creepy crayon drawing of some kind of evil woman.

At night, Evy listens to the file of “Baa Baa Black Sheep” that Justin sent her and plays it in reverse, hearing something that sounds like “look and lick the blood off”. Evy also gets a call from a doctor, confirming that she is six weeks pregnant with Darren’s baby, but she says she will hold off on making any decisions regarding the pregnancy just yet. Weird things start happening in the house, like lights flickering, strange noises, and a statue of the Virgin Mary showing up when Evy tries to keep it out of sight.

Evy and Justin start the next episode of their podcast by moving onto the fourth and fifth audio files. The fourth one has Jessa playing with a creepy doll that says things like “I like it here in the dark”, which disturbs Mike but also reveals that the couple were expecting a child. Later in the clip, the couple are woken up by what sounds like a loud thumping sound, something that Evy speculates is just faulty plumbing. The fifth file has Jessa saying something backwards repeatedly, which terrifies Mike. Evy and Justin end the episode here.

Evy investigates the audio files and plays the backwards message in reverse, discovering that a voice (not Jessa) is saying “Come in, Abyzou”. She and Justin learn that Abyzou is a mythical demon, “the patron saint of cursed mothers”, who targeted women with children as a result of her not being able to have her own offspring. She would cause miscarriages, or force mothers to murder their children.

Justin plays the sixth audio file. Mike is heard asking Jessa if she remembers anything from the night before, but she doesn’t. Justin says he sees overlapping voices in the file as Jessa talks. They play the seventh file, where a baby crying can be heard over Jessa snoring, and Mike is unsettled. Jessa then lets out a frightening scream, telling Mike she thinks there is something by the kitchen sink, but he says there’s nothing there. Evy assumes it’s just the neighbors’ baby. Justin tries to email the sender of the files, but the message bounces back. Even though he is starting to feel creeped out as well, Evy makes Justin play the eighth file. Jessa is heard waking Mike up because of the banging sound in the walls again. “Baa Baa Black Sheep” is heard playing clearly until it cuts out and features more baby noises and Jessa screaming again because she thinks she saw something horrifying. Justin looks up how there were two cases of people obsessed with “Come in, Abyzou” being played backwards, leading the first woman to kill her children, and the second to commit suicide in the hospital while being five months pregnant. Justin wants to trash the episode because he thinks they have taken things too far, but Evy insists they continue, and Justin reluctantly agrees.

Evy goes back upstairs to check on her mother. She tells Evelyn about her pregnancy but admits she doesn’t feel fit to be a mother. The light in Evelyn’s bathroom appears to turn on by itself, and she rises up slowly when Evy goes to turn it off. Later, she thinks she hears her mother saying something, but she is unresponsive when Evy tries to talk to her again.

Evy and Justin begin the final part of their episode with the last two audio files, with viewers encouraged to call on-air. Evy declares she thinks that Jessa and Mike just created a hoax for attention. Justin plays the ninth audio file, where Jessa is heard crying about seeing a shadow, before turning into twisted laughter until it abruptly cuts out. The first caller rings, and a man’s voice says that Jessa and Mike were his neighbors who were found dead at the bottom of their stairs with plastic bags over their heads, and dead babies drawn on the walls. The caller confirms Jessa was five months pregnant. Another caller rings and says that a woman from her childhood rented out her family’s home’s basement and would play children’s songs backwards before later getting arrested for killing her baby by putting it in a garbage bag and smashing it against a wall.

Justin hesitates to play the final audio file, but Evy urges him to do so. In it, Jessa says that “she” is listening and that she needs to warn “her”, presumably talking about Evy. Mike follows her, and she mentions “licking the blood off”. The file stops, and then starts up with distorted lullabies. Jessa is heard screaming again and even says “Justin, I’m so cold”, which deeply disturbs Justin. This makes Evy think Justin was behind this. Another caller rings, demanding to speak to “Mary”, the name that Evy considered for her child. A fourth caller rings and says that they shouldn’t have listened to the tapes, because Abyzou lurks in the tenth file and waits for her victims to hear her. A final called, “Abby” (Sarah Beaudin), is asking Evy and Justin for help with her crying baby. The duo then hear what sounds like Abby drowning her baby. Evy tries to get through to Abby by saying that she “killed” her own mother by avoiding her prayers, trying to convince Abby she is good. Abby’s sobbing turns into malicious laughter and says it is too late.

The two are then plagued by distorted noises, and their call gets cut out. Evy sees creepy images around the house, like drawings of Abyzou all over the walls, and the “I Feel Wonderful” video turning into a terrifying face. She goes upstairs and sees Evelyn emerging from the bathroom, while brief flashes of a victim with a bag over their head (strongly implied to be Evy) are seen. The film cuts to black as Evy can be heard screaming and calling for Justin, saying she is cold. Evy’s voice then distorts and starts repeating “Come in, Abyzou” backwards.