‘Presence’: A Haunting We Will Go
Steven Soderbergh's unsettling "Presence" lends a chilling new perspective to the haunted house thriller.
The titular phantom in Steven Soderbergh’s new thriller, Presence, is already waiting inside the house when a dysfunctional family of four makes the place their new home. Peeping through the windows, it watches them move in, and stalks them silently from room to room.
Directing from a script by David Koepp, Soderbergh commits to the creepiness by shooting the entire film from the first-person POV of the ghost haunting the family’s 100-year old house. It’s an effectively disquieting approach to the haunted house thriller, close in concept to In a Violent Nature, the grisly 2024 slasher film told from the killer’s point-of-view.
But that indie hit, written and directed by Chris Nash, literally follows its marauding murderer on his deadly rounds, while Presence sees solely through the eyes of its specter. Soderbergh, also serving as cinematographer and editor, casts the camera as the disembodied presence, stuck inside this house, roaming its halls unseen.
Through the presence, we meet rigid mom Rebekah (Lucy Liu), discontented dad Chris (Chris Sullivan), swimming champ son Tyler (Eddy Maday), and introverted daughter Chloe (Callina Liang). Sullen 16-year old Chloe feels ignored by her mom in favor of golden boy Tyler, but the presence takes a particular interest in her. And she can sense when she’s not alone.
Forgoing high-body-count horror for slow-burning suspense, the movie methodically maps out the family’s fraught dynamics, while the presence, a busy voyeur, learns everyone’s secrets. About the ghost, the film reveals little, other than its obvious attachment to Chloe. Does it mean to protect or possess her?
At first, the presence doesn’t manifest physically. It’s merely an attentive set of eyes and ears on the family’s lives, peeking in on each one’s private moments. The roving camera draws the audience into the charged exchange between the watcher and the watched, as the script unfolds tasty threads of mystery that might reveal the ghost’s purpose.
Liang, as Chloe, especially conveys the disquieting feeling, between dread and fascination, that comes with the girl’s awareness of this presence. It seems fascinated with her, too.
Chloe believes the haunting might have to do with the recent death of her best friend, Nadia. Of course, her family doubts the house is haunted — until they don’t, when Presence arrives at that delicious, staple moment in supernatural horror, when “Maybe you’re imagining things” turns to “What the fuck just happened?”
Like film families from Amityville to Poltergeist, everyone in this clan is forced to acknowledge something strange is happening in their house, and Soderbergh makes that turn both tense and funny. Liu, who starts out somewhat one-note as wine-sipping, overbearing mom Rebekah, offers a more multi-faceted portrayal as her controlling character recognizes she can’t control spirits.
Sullivan, as her usually patient husband (who’s also hiding something), sells the domestic drama of a dad constantly struggling to hold his fraying family together. Yet, even dutiful dad isn’t trying to play ghostbuster, so they call in an expert. Natalie Woolams-Torres has a couple of brief, chilling yet amusing scenes as a ghost whisperer who doesn’t even have to set foot in their house to know they’re not alone there.
Once the presence is out of the bag, so to speak, and the slow-burn ignites into a raging race against danger, the film loses a bit of its mojo. Yet, at barely 85 minutes, the pacing stays tight, and the movie regains some mystique with an intriguing twist ending that should set off healthy debates over what just happened, how it happened, and who was the presence all along.
Presence (★★★★☆) is rated R, and playing in theaters nationwide. Visit www.fandango.com.
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