5 Indie Movies This Week: Undertone, Saipan, In the Realm of the Senses, & More

This week on Indie Film Weekly, Glen Reynolds highlights five indie films worth knowing about: three in theaters, one on demand, and one classic.

🎥 Indie Film Reviews:
Undertone (2026)
Saipan (2026)
Slanted (2026)
The Voice That Rocked America (2026)
In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

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Welcome back to Indie Film Weekly for the week of March 13, 2026. I'm your host, Glenn Reynolds. This week in theaters, we've got a sound-driven horror film where a podcast host gets pulled into a set of recordings that refuses to stay contained. We've got a real-life sports blow-up that became a national argument with two leaders locked in the battle of pride and control. And we've got a teen satire that turns the pressure to assimilate into literal body horror. On T V Audit, I'm spotlighting a documentary about a legendary radio voice from the era when DJs could move culture with a microphone. And for our classic, we're marking a 50-year anniversary for a famously controversial film about obsession. If you want indie films to keep getting real screens and real show times, go now. Opening weekends are where the future gets decided. This episode of Indy Film Weekly is brought to you by Circus Road Films, helping independent filmmakers find their audience since 2006. Learn more at CircusRodefilms.com. Let's dive in. Our first indie film in theaters this week is Undertone. Written and directed by Ian Twassen, it follows Evie, a skeptic who co-hosts a paranormal podcast while caring for her dying mother at home. One day, her co-host Justin sends her 10 audio files that arrived anonymously. They come from a young pregnant couple who think their house is haunted. Evie starts listening for content, something creepy for the show. Instead, she hears a story that feels uncomfortably close to her own life. The tapes are mostly sound, voices, knocks, and strange patterns that do not behave like normal recordings. As she digs in, her home starts to feel less stable. Little details in the files line up with what is happening around her. That is where the movie gets under your skin. It's not about monsters jumping into frame, it's about what you hear in the dark, what your mind does with it when you are tired, stressed, and alone. Mina Curie carries nearly the entire film on her shoulders because the focus stays tight on Evie in the house. If you like horror that treats sound as the main weapon, this one is built for you. It also has a sharp modern hook, a podcast host realizing the scariest story is the one that will not stay inside the headphones. Our second indie film in theaters this week is Saipan, directed by Glenn Labyrne and Lisa Barros de Sas. This dramatizes the infamous Roy Keene and Mick McCarthy clash on the eve of the 2002 World Cup. The Irish team sets up its training camp in Saipan, expecting focus, heat, and routine. Instead, the trip becomes a slow-motion collision between two strong personalities, with teammates and staff watching the temperature rise day by day. Roy Keane, the captain, is demanding and blunt. McCarthy, the manager, is trying to keep the squad together and the press at bay. The film builds toward the confrontation fans still argue about, but it also spends time on what leads there miscommunication, pride, and the pressure of carrying a country's expectations. Steve Coogan plays McCarthy, and Iana Hardwick plays Keene, and the casting works because both men can be charismatic and impossible in the same scene. The story is sports, but it's also workplace drama. Two leaders with different styles, both convinced they are protecting the group. If you know the headline, the suspense is not what happens. The suspense is how it happens and what it does to everyone standing in the middle. This is a tight talky film with real stakes because one argument can reroute an entire tournament, and in this case, it did. Our last indie film in theaters this week is Slanted. Written and directed by Amy Wong, it's a body horror satire about Joan Wang, a Chinese American high school senior who's decided prom queen is her ticket to acceptance. Joan is not chasing a crown for fun. She treats it like proof that she belongs, that she can stop feeling like the other at school. When she gets access to an experimental racial transformation procedure, she makes a choice that is both ambitious and desperate. The surgery changes her appearance so she can present as white, and the movie follows what that does to her body, her relationships, and her sense of self. Shirley Chen plays Joan, and she sells the mix of determination, panic, and denial that keeps the story moving. The film is funny, but it's not soft. It pushes the idea of assimilation into literal physical territory and then forces Joan to live with the consequences. McKenna Grace shows up as Joe Hunt, one of the key faces in Joan's orbit, and the high school social machine is portrayed like a competitive sport with its own rules and punishments. This film premiered at South by Southwest and took the top narrative prize. If you want an indie film that swings hard, takes a risk, and stays anchored to one girl's hunger to fit in, this is the one. So in theaters this week, that's Undertone, Saipan, and Slanted. Our spotlight film on T Vod this week is The Voice That Rocked America, the Dick Beyondi Story. Directed by Pamela Pulis, this is a fast-moving tribute to Dick Beyondi, a top 40 radio star who helped turn rock and roll broadcasting into a full contact sport. The film tracks his rise in the era when DJs were celebrities. Call letters mattered, and a voice could make a song feel like an event. You get the radio world details, the speed, the patter, the contests, the late nights, and the sheer stamina it took to stay on top. It also treats Beyondi as a connector, someone who built community through the airwaves, long before algorithms decided what you heard next. The documentary is made with clear affection, but it does not flatten him into a mascot. It lets his personality come through, funny, relentless, and proudly old school about the craft. If you grow up with the radio on in the kitchen or the car, this will hit the nostalgia button in a good way. And if you did not, it still works as a snapshot of a time when music culture moved at the speed of a spinning record. You can rent it now on Apple TV. Our indie film classic this week is In the Realm of the Senses, celebrating its 50th anniversary. Directed by Nagasa Oshima, it is inspired by the real Sada Abe incident in 1930s Japan, and it remains one of the most talked-about films ever made about obsession. The story centers on Sada working at an inn and Kachizo, her employer. What begins as an affair turns into an all-consuming private world. They shut out friends, work, and consequence, and keep escalating their relationship as if intensity can replace reality. The film's reputation comes from how explicit it is, but the lasting impact is psychological. Oshima is looking at desire as power, and at isolation as something you can choose until it becomes a trap. There's also a strong sense of era. Outside their room is a society tidying up with order and conformity taking over public life. One wild production fact: strict censorship rules meant Ochema officially framed the project as a French production, and the footage was processed and edited in France. Even the making of the film was kind of a protest. This is not a casual Friday night pick. It still feels daring today. But as cinema history, it is essential, and it's a reminder that filmmakers once took risks that could bring real legal trouble. You can watch it now on the Criterion channel. And that wraps it for the March 13, 2026 edition of Indie Film Weekly. If you want to help the show, do the stuff that moves the needle. Subscribe so it lands in your feed every week. Share it with one friend who always asks, What should I see? Rate it. Then drop a quick review. Even one sentence helps. Until next week, keep it sharp, keep it game, and keep it indie.