Written and directed by breakout horror filmmaker Ian Tuason, undertone follows the host of a popular paranormal podcast who becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way.
More from their press:
“undertone plunges audiences into a terrifying soundscape and partnering with A24 to bring this chilling cinematic experience to Dolby Cinema allows audiences to experience every whisper, silence, and scream in Ian Tuason’s film,” said Jed Harmsen, VP & General Manager of Cinema & Group Entertainment, Dolby Laboratories. “Immersive Dolby Atmos sound will reveal greater details in each scare in this auditory horror film while the precision of the Dolby Vision picture quality provides sharper clarity in the darkness, making a suspenseful experience like no other.”
Dolby Cinema early access screenings will take place on March 9, prior to the nationwide theatrical release in other formats on March 13.
TMZ was the first to report this really tragic news yesterday.
Roger Sweet — the toy designer who created the He-Man character for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in the 1980s — is suffering from dementia, and according to his wife, he’s unable to afford the necessary care.
Marlene Sweet, who has been married to Roger for nearly 40 years, launched a GoFundMe to help with the $10,200-a-month bill for Roger’s memory care facility. According to reports, he took a pretty bad fall at the age of 91, and dementia was already complicating the situation.
Anyone who has been connected to this disease or has seen it in their own family knows the pain, the tribulation, and the long wind of dementia blowing through the minds of people with Alzheimer’s. It’s very unfortunate. Very sad. And in this case, it feels even sadder because of the amount of joy his creation of He-Man brought to a few generations of people.
My husband, Roger Sweet, is the creator of HE-MAN and MASTERS of the UNIVERSE. He was a toy designer at Mattel for over 15 years. Roger designed and named the original He-Man character, and worked for years with other designers to create all the other characters and playsets that enthralled kids for so many years – and still do today!
Over the years Roger was invited to and attended multiple COMICON conventions. He always loved talking about HE-MAN and MASTERS with all the fans! I was able to accompany him to several, and it was fun to see him interacting with HE-MAN fans.
We have been married for nearly 40 years. When we got married, the designers in the HE-MAN group “built” us a plaster wedding cake, with “HE-MAN TAKES MARLENE FOR HIS BRIDE” written on the side, and HE-MAN dressed for a wedding (with his bride holding all the weapons) for the cake topper! Very clever guys!!!
Roger is now nearly 91 years old and sadly has dementia. His illness has continued to progress, and I have done all I can to take care of his needs at home. He recently went for a walk and returned much later than usual and very tired. I discovered terrible bruising on his side and much disorientation, and when asked what happened he did not recall falling and getting this injury. The doctor sent him to the ER, and after 4 hours of tests they discovered he had two brain bleeds along with the massive bruising on his side. He was admitted to the ICU where he stayed for 3 days, then 4 more days in the main hospital, sleeping most of the time and continuing to be very disoriented, along with refusing to stay put and trying to go walking about. The doctors consider him a high risk for falls and say he must use a walker, considering the dementia and brain bleeds, but he says he does not need it and continues to walk around in his confused state.
They decided he must live in a Memory care facility, where he can be monitored and safe. He is now at our chosen care facility and is settling in. He has only been there a few days and his mental decline is sadly continuing. It is devastating to see this happening. Unfortunately these care facilities are not covered by Medicare, and the cost for a patient in his condition is $10,200 a month, well above our monthly income.
So I am reaching out to all the HE-MAN fans for help with these bills. Any donation will be greatly appreciated and will ease the burden of this new expense.
Sweet’s design work helped shape an entire era of toys and animation that still resonates with fans today. The He-Man fan base is pretty strong. Perhaps they’ll step up and assist in this case because of the amount of joy this man brought into their lives.
The only thing we can do right now is hope and pray that the family finds some relief — and some peace — during what has to be an incredibly difficult time.
The concept of the Backrooms has always been really cool. For some horror fans, it’s been a very niche genre .. very eerie, very visible, very visceral, and very visual. There’s something about the quiet hum of the Backrooms that’s unsettling, yet somehow calming.
A lot of people actually use Backrooms videos to fall asleep at night, playing them endlessly on a loop on YouTube. Others just have a weird version of comfort from seeing the Backrooms because they feel like they’ve been there before. There’s something oddly familiar about those yellow walls and fluorescent lights. It taps into something subconscious.
Now that concept is heading to the big screen.
The upcoming film Backrooms is scheduled for theatrical release on May 29, 2026. It’s being released by A24 and directed by Kane Parsons, the same creator behind the viral YouTube series that helped bring the modern Backrooms mythos into mainstream horror conversation.
Parsons originally began creating the Backrooms shorts as a teenager, and yes — he was just 19 years old when he was hired to direct the feature adaptation. That alone is kind of incredible. The screenplay was written by Roberto Patino and Will Soodik, and the cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Avan Jogia.
The film reportedly centers on a therapist whose patient disappears into a mysterious dimension beyond reality and she enters that bizarre, endless space to find them.
This movie may not necessarily be a huge hit. But it definitely has its share of people who are looking forward to it. We’re hopeful that it will be a hit because we’ve always loved the concept as much as other people have too.
Plus, we’re in a new era of horror. A new era of movie-making. Just the idea that the person who created this film was 19 while this was being filmed for a 21st-century release and that’s really cool.
Before one o’clock, of course, he can’t have any champagne to celebrate a wide release. At least not legally. But we should all celebrate new directors and new people in the industry and also homages to a really cool horror genre.
Because whether you find the Backrooms terrifying or comforting… that hum is about to get a lot louder.
