PRESENCE [2025]

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Directed by:
Written by:
Starring: , , ,

USA

IN SELECTED CINEMAS NOW

RUNNING TIME: 85 mins

REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera

The Paynes, a family of four – mother Rebecca, father Chris, elder brother Tyler, and younger sister Chloe – move into a large suburban house inhabited by a poltergeist who constantly observes them. There are cracks in the family. Rebecca has been committing financial fraud at her work. Chris is considering leaving her. Rebecca dotes on Tyler, a champion swimmer at college, while paying little attention to Chloe, who feels isolated even though Chris does pay her attention and stand up for her. Chloe is grieving the death of her best friend Nadia, one of two girls in the community who recently died in their sleep. “The Presence” is increasingly ‘drawn to Chloe and eventually makes its presence to her, not being at all threatening – unlike some danger from a human….

Has Steven Soderbergh tackled horror before? The uneven but sometimes very good and usually interesting filmmaker has tackled a fair few genres, but because his products tend to differ a lot from each other I had to think for a few minutes. Obviously there was Contagion back in 2011 which has some horror elements, but also – of course! – 2018’s Unsane, the part psychological/part psycho thriller he shot entirely on his phone. Soderbergh tends to be worth paying attention to when he’s experimenting, and he turned out a decent effort. Here he turns his attention to the ghost movie, though some will claim that he hasn’t made a horror film at all. It will disappoint many, because – and I’ll state right now – don’t expect to be scared. However, once one accepts that Presence isn’t actually trying to frighten, it’s much easier to accept and then judge it on its own terms, and in any case there’s another unusual thing that Soderbergh has done with this film; shoot it all in long takes from the point of view of the ghost, something which must have been challenging, what with for example the difficulty of hiding the camera crew in interior spaces where there’s a lot of potential for reflections. It’s a neat idea, but does it work in execution? I wonder if the film was shot in chronological order, seeing as director/cinematographer/editor Soderbergh seem to struggle a bit at first with what he’s attempting, but soon gets it right. The film can’t help coming off primarily as a technical exercise at times, but as long as you remember that it’s really a family drama with a supernatural twist and a dark subplot rather than a chiller, there’s still much involvement to be had, climaxing with a twist that might need some thinking about to work out, but should eventually hit home rather emotionally!

We begin with a POV tour of the house which might seem pointless but does immediately alert the viewer as to how this film is going to be in more than one way. “We” observe the family of four moving in and then cut to the very spacious house some time later when it’s been furnished. The Presence observes all, but it’s not like a slasher movie where we feel more suspense when “we” become the killer. In fact, very early on there’s something curiously comforting about this spook who keeps an eye on things and sometimes hides in Chloe’s closet. As I said before, this was quite clearly the intent, so you can’t say that Soderbergh has failed in this respect, though the way that scenes suddenly cut to black for two or three seconds, often before a scene seems to have actually ended, is initially jarring and takes some getting used to. And there’s a unique atmosphere as the Presence – and we – whirl around rooms and seem especially interested in looking out of windows, which is rather poignant really, suggesting an apparition which is trapped. And this family has some major issues going on which are revealed to us in dialogue which only occasionally comes across as a bit forced. Rebecca committing of [unspecified] fraud at her work is probably only one reason why Chris is considering leaving her. Rebecca focuses on son Tyler, who’s excelled at school in academia and especially swimming, while paying little attention to withdrawn daughter Chloe who’s struggling to process a very traumatic incident, though at least Chris is certainly concerned for her. It’s eventually revealed to us in a nice progression of scenes that her best friend Nadia died in her sleep along with another girl.

The Presence makes itself known to her, but of course the others don’t believe her, and Tyler, who dismisses the dead girls as drug addicts, is downright cruel to her during a dinner scene which is just so well written and played.  Indeed quite a lot of this is well handled and convincing. Chloe just the sort of person who might imagine that she’s being visited by a ghost, a ghost who could be the spirit of her dead friend, grief being something where some of us do really sense a presence. We sympathise so much with Chloe, but don’t like her brother much at all. As well as showing a total lack of understanding of his sister, we learn that and his friends at college set up a female classmate, took an embarrassing photo of her, then circulated it on social media. Rebecca is okay about it because she thinks that her amazing son can do no wrong, but Chris and Chloe are understandably appalled. In a weird way, I’d have been okay if things had continued in this vein, the family becoming more and more divided, essentially tearing itself apart, or at least in two halves, while The Presence watches, unable to do anything about it. There’s just something rather compelling about this, and I was reminded just a bit of the impotent spirit in the hugely existentialist A Ghost Story. But this ghost does have powers, and Keopp and Soderbergh understandably felt that they had to bring in some other, more conventional elements into a film that was already offbeat and even experimental, elements that provided more incident. A medium visits the house and tells our family a few things, and a guy named Ryan pops over sometimes. He’s friends with Tyler and wants to be even closer friends with Chloe, though it’s revealed early that he’s not all he seems.

The camerawork, by Soderbergh himself, is initially rather dizzying, and I did notice two reflections that shouldn’t have been visible, but they’re very brief and it’s possible that I only noticed them because of the way I watch films that I’m going to go on and review. However, some distortion in the picture, because of the wide angle lens employed so that as much of the interiors were taken in as possible, is very evident in a few early, especially when one character on the left hand side of the picture is suddenly looking really fat in the way that people and objects can do if you’re watching something at home in the wrong aspect ratio. Soderbergh shot this in just three weeks, and it does sometime glaringly show; surely he must have noticed on playbacks that some things didn’t look right? However, things do vastly improve technically, and soon we don’t miss the lack of closeups or mind the continuous movement, these two things certainly not hindering us in getting involved with the characters. Soderberg gives us some terrific moments with these people which feel very real, such as a really great scene where Chloe and Ryan develop a connection which is certainly genuine from Chloe’s point of view but not so from Ryan’s, he clearly just pretending and even telling her when they will have sex though she doesn’t pick up on this. In fact all the scenes between these two are just so excellently done, properly uncomfortable yet we feel Chloe’s need for understanding and affection; t’s almost heartbreaking, and it’s much better that it’s revealed that Ryan isn’t actually a nice guy early on rather than have it suddenly told to us much later, though there’s a twist involving the character which doesn’t quite work; some clues leading up to this might have helped.

One wonders why two parents would leave their kids alone in an obviously haunted house, while the Presence only seems to have powers when the script requires it to use them. Keopp’s script occasionally comes across as a first draft, throwing up a few ideas that aren’t developed. For example Chloe and Chris have a conversation in which he reveals that he believes Chloe’s claims, admitting that he has become more religious with time as his age has brought him experience. This is interesting, but this idea never returns or has no bearing in future developments. A lot of stuff is left in mystery, which isn’t always a bad thing – in fact it can be a very good thing – but Presence feels like it has a few gaps which Keopp intended to fill in later but either never got around to it or Soderbergh took the script before it was finished, though I doubt very much that this was actually the case. Nonetheless there’s so much else that works, such as the fact that father and daughter are instantly and continually likeable but mother and son remain rather unsympathetic really comes off well in terms of dynamic. It’s nice to see Lucy Lui in something like this, even though she’s rather too old for her role, and she really has become a considerable actress, really helping to make up for the fact that it feels like important parts of her character are missing. Callina Liang as Chloe doesn’t seem to be emotive enough until you realise that’s how it should be because she’s meant to be in shock.

The final scene, when it comes along, hits such a nerve that it makes any previous niggles about what you’ve been watching disappear. There have been some memorable twists in ghost movies, and Keopp has come up with a great new one which might seem baffling or stupid at first, but have a think back to a scene where we learn something particularly odd about ghosts. The central themes are revealed to be guilt – and after that the need to write wrongs. Once one realises this, it all seems rather moving in retrospect. I had a few issues with how Soderbergh and Keopp got us there, but they’ve certainly given us an original take on the ghost story which I think will seem to be of even higher quality with a second viewing.

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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About Dr Lenera 2017 Articles
I'm a huge film fan and will watch pretty much any type of film, from Martial Arts to Westerns, from Romances [though I don't really like Romcoms!]] to Historical Epics. Though I most certainly 'have a life', I tend to go to the cinema twice a week! However,ever since I was a kid, sneaking downstairs when my parents had gone to bed to watch old Universal and Hammer horror movies, I've always been especially fascinated by horror, and though I enjoy all types of horror films, those Golden Oldies with people like Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee probably remain my favourites. That's not to say I don't enjoy a bit of blood and gore every now and again though, and am also a huge fan of Italian horror, I just love the style.

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