Reminding you to listen (CREDIT: Michelle Faye/Universal Pictures; A24)

Undertone

Starring: Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michèle Duquet, Keena Lyn Bastidas, Jeff Yung, Sarah Beaudin, Brian Quintero

Director: Ian Tuason

Running Time: 94 Minutes

Rating: R for Language (The Spooks are PG-13-Level)

Release Date: March 13, 2026 (Theaters)

Reminders of Him

Starring: Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Rudy Pankow, Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford, Lainey Wilson, Jennifer Robertson, Zoe Kosovic, Nicholas Duvernay, Monika Myers, Hilary Jardine

Director: Vanessa Caswill

Running Time: 114 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Accident Images, a Few Punches, and a Little Bit of Skinny Dipping

Release Date: March 13, 2026 (Theaters)

In the course of my journeys in Cinematic Completism, I often see two very different movies in quick succession. And it doesn’t get much more starkly distinct than the humble horror flick Undertone and the tragic romance Reminders of Him. So when a moment like this happens, I occasionally like to let everyone know what this whiplash was like for me and guide you towards whether or not it’s worth experiencing it yourself as well.

First up, Undertone is a humble little frightfest about an independent podcaster named Evy (Nina Kiri) who shares creepy audio recordings to her listeners alongside her co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco). He’s the believer, while she’s the skeptic. They record remotely, with Evy also serving as caretaker to her dying mother (Michèle Duquet) who’s in hospice care. In the midst of all this, Evy also discovers that she’s pregnant, which becomes a particularly frightening proposition in light of the recordings that she and Justin play that seem to summon a baby-snatching demon.

Interestingly enough, these two movies share a major theme in terms of the threatened loss of motherhood. Reminders of Him is much more quotidian about it, though, as Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe) returns to her home in Wyoming after serving a prison term for manslaughter for the car accident that killed her boyfriend Scotty (Rudy Pankow). While she was behind bars, Scotty’s parents Grace and Patrick (Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford) looked after her and Scotty’s daughter Diem (Zoe Kosovic), whom she gave birth to while incarcerated. Grace and Patrick have no intention of ever letting Kenna back into their lives, but she finds an unlikely ally/love interest in Scotty’s retired NFL player friend Ledger (Tyriq Withers), who’s been stepping in as a surrogate father for Diem (making this the second movie in less than a year with Withers as a pro footballer when the movie is really about something else besides the gridiron.)

Now for Assessment Time. The short answer is: I was excited for Undertone, less so for Reminders of Him; the former disappointed me, while the latter was a happy surprise. As a horror addict, perhaps my creepy standards were just a bit too high, and if you’re more of a romance devotee, you might have the exact opposite reaction as me. Assuming you have the fortitude to withstand Undertone‘s scares (and they’re not terribly intense and certainly not too gory), a lack of horror completism is certainly helpful to appreciate this as something different. But I appreciated it as something different as well! Ultimately, I applaud the concept but thought the execution was a little too cheesy. Meanwhile, Reminders won me over by at the very least being the most satisfying adaptation thus far of a Colleen Hoover novel, with the previous ones being too overwrought or too overly contrived. This time around, the conflict was much more straightforward, with a family ripped apart by a tragic mistake working their way towards reunion via forgiveness and second chances. Ultimately, these movies are both about simple (albeit very) different pleasures, and I guess I was in the mood for more sunshine than dark hallways this week.

Grades:
Undertone: 2.5 out of 5 Backwards Messages
Reminders of Him: 3 out of 5 Early Releases