Undertone Is Already The Scariest Horror Movie Of 2026 - Here's Why

After the banner year for horror that was 2025, this year has already been ruled by horror movies. Whereas cinemas were once packed with superhero films, there has barely been a week of 2026 that hasn’t seen a new scary movie released. This is a horror fan's dream.

The genre has been shunned for years, and it is heartwarming that it’s now being embraced by studios and audiences alike. Getting into horror films can be addictive, with everyone chasing the next big scare. So, if you’re after your next spooky fix, you need to have Undertone on your watchlist. 

Releasing in the UK on 10 April, Undertone has so far been very well received by US critics and audiences, with reviews touting it as the scariest film of the year. The overwhelming consensus is that Undertone is an example of one of those horror films that comes home with you. Rather than being a film that will have you jumping out of your seat in the cinema, only to be forgotten when the lights come up, Undertone is set to seep under your skin and has the potential to cause a sleepless night or two. 

Undertone Reviews Emphasise The Scariness

As someone who has already seen Undertone, I can confirm that it is full of creeping dread. Right from its opening moment, which features a haunting singsong of children’s nursery rhymes, writer and director Ian Tuason creates a creepy atmosphere. This is gradually built up one octave at a time, reaching a crescendo that lands with a similar impact to that found in the final moments of The Blair Witch Project. 

Reviews, such as that of YouTuber and moderator Perri Nemiroff, call Undertone “remarkably unsettling”, and her claim that this is “the first movie to keep me up at night since Paranormal Activity” is completely valid. In fact, a key aspect of the story feels very close to Oren Peli’s found footage phenomenon. 

Fitting into the slow-burn style of horror film, Undertone is a movie that rewards the audience’s patience and participation. The story follows podcast host Evy and her co-host, Justin, as they record a new episode of their show, ‘The Undertone.’ The premise of their podcast is that they investigate spooky goings on with Justin, the believer, and Evy, the sceptic. In Undertone, they begin recording a new episode based on a series of 10 audio files that were emailed to the podcast from an anonymous account. 

As they begin listening to the files, a compelling Paranormal Activity-esque story is heard. The files reveal a man determined to prove to his girlfriend that she talks in her sleep, so he begins to record her, but these recordings provide evidence of far more than innocent somniloquy. 

Whereas most movies’ worth is judged by how much money they make, when it comes to the horror genre, it is all about the fear factor. In more recent years, scientists have begun studying the fear factor of films by tracking the heart rate of a group of test subjects. These participants watch different horror movies, and the higher their BPM (beats per minute), the scarier a film is scientifically. This annual test, known as the Science as Scare Project, has seen two films locked in a battle for the number one spot, with the results swaying between Scott Derrickson’s Sinister and Rob Savage’s Host. 

Other contenders include liminal horror Skinamirink, as well as James Wan’s double of The Conjuring and Insidious. With Undertone’s constant sense of rising dread, it could definitely be a contender in the years to come. 

What Makes Undertone So Unique?

During a video introduction at the UK multimedia screening of Undertone, director Ian Tuason described his film as a ‘found-audio’ rather than ‘found-footage’ movie. That makes sense as Evy, Justin, and the audience are listening to ten mysterious audio files. Listening to them does feel exactly like watching a found footage movie, with it perhaps made scarier due to not being able to see the couple that is being heard. Imagination is powerful and can oftentimes dream up things far more frightening than what can be shown. This certainly works to Undertone’s benefit as these files contain most of the film's big scares. 

What makes Undertone really unique, though, is its use of sound design. Yes, the audio files provide scary content, but even when Evy isn’t listening to them, the soundscape is unsettling. The use of sound has been cleverly orchestrated, and Undertone needs to be viewed either in a cinema with a great sound system or at home in the middle of the night with noise-cancelling headphones on. Both of these environments give the greatest opportunity for full immersion, and the best methods to appreciate this hellish aural soundscape. 

For those thinking that spooky sounds can’t compete with scary images, just remember that you can easily cover your eyes to avoid witnessing parts of a horror movie you find frightening, but it is far more difficult to block out a noise. 

Is Undertone The Scariest Movie Of 2026?

2026 has already gotten off to a great start for the horror genre with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Primate, Whistle, Scream 7, and Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, having already delighted audiences. 

As well as each of these films has done, however, none of them has targeted the scariest aspect of horror. The commonality between each of them is how they have embraced gore to differing degrees, focusing on being crowd-pleasing bloodfests rather than skin-crawling paranormal affairs. This means that Undertone is set to easily take the crown of scariest movie of 2026, but there are several contenders waiting in the pipeline. 

First up is Damien McCarthy’s Hokum. Anyone who has seen either Caveat or Oddity will know that the director is adept at generating scares seemingly out of nowhere. The unexplained rabbit toy in Caveat still haunts my dreams, and Oddity features one of the best surprise jump scare moments in recent history. The plot of Hokum has been kept shrouded in secrecy, but the trailer suggests that actor Adam Scott is going to have a really awful time, and that McCarthy might have somehow created a more terrifying bunny creature than Caveat’s.

Another film hot on the heels of Undertone is Curry Barker’s Obsession. The film debuted at Fantastic Fest in 2025, and the attending audience heaped praise on it, with a lot of chatter revolving around how frightening certain parts were. Obsession looks set to be a great new entry in the ‘wish gone wrong’ sub-genre of horror, as the story tells of a man who gets more than he bargained for after wishing that the girl of his dreams would love him more than anything. Love spells never end well in horror, so we’re very keen to see how dark and scary this one gets. 

In the meantime, whilst you wait for Undertone to arrive, why not catch up with another podcast-centred horror, Monolith? Starring Evil Dead Rise’s Lily Sullivan, Monolith finds an isolated podcaster’s life unravelling after a mysterious artefact is sent to her. This Australian chiller hones in on themes of isolation and paranoia, and is a haven for conspiracy theorists.