A24’s New Horror Movie With Handmaid’s Tale Star Clutches Strong Rotten Tomatoes Score Ahead Of Release

The new A24 horror movie, which is the feature debut of writer-director Ian Tuason, follows a podcast host (The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Nina Kiri) listening to recordings that may be unleashing an evil entity into the house where she is taking care of her dying mother. The theatrical release of Undertone kicks off on March 13.

Now that Undertone is just a week out from its debut, critics’ reviews have come flooding in on Rotten Tomatoes, adding to the early reviews that came out of screenings at Fantasia and Sundance. While the score could fluctuate as more reviews are added, it currently has a solid 88% on the Tomatometer, giving it the potential to become Certified Fresh once enough reviews are aggregated.

Critics’ individual Undertone reviews are mixed to positive. While it has earned some middling scores, including 2.5 out of 4 and C+, quite a few critics have given the new horror movie overwhelmingly strong ratings. This includes But Why Tho?‘s James Preston Poole, who gave it a perfect 10 out of 10 and said that it feels like “a film that feels like it actively curses the audience.”

If it maintains this high of a score by the time it debuts, Undertone could break an unfortunate Rotten Tomatoes pattern that has been plaguing A24 horror movies over the past two years. While 2024 started off strong with I Saw the TV Glow and MaXXXine earning Fresh scores, the company’s non-comedic horror titles then flipped consistently from Fresh to Rotten and back through the end of 2025.

However, Undertone‘s 88% score comes immediately in the wake of 2025’s Bring Her Back (the sophomore feature from Talk to Me directors Danny and Michael Philippou) earning a Certified Fresh 89%. Below, see a breakdown of the Rotten Tomatoes scores earned by A24’s horror titles since the debut of I Saw the TV Glow in May 2024:

It remains to be seen if A24 can keep up their current hot streak and earn even more consecutive Fresh scores with their upcoming horror titles. However, their slate of planned releases is full of promising titles from prominent creators that have the potential to earn solid reviews.

Their roster of titles following Undertone includes the Chiwetel Ejiofor-led Backrooms (which also stars 2026 Best Actress Oscar nominee Renate Reinsve), Adam Wingard’s Onslaught, and Jeremy Saulnier’s October.