The new Steven Soderbergh film Presence is a ghost story, albeit an unconventional one. It can’t be neatly described as a horror movie or even a thriller, genre-wise fitting in most closely to a supernatural family drama. The events of the film are shown entirely from the perspective of what we come to find is a displaced spirit that seems to reside within a house built in the early 20th century. As is the case for the past dozen or so projects that Soderbergh has directed, he also serves as editor and, especially important this time around, as cinematographer as well. Regardless of what one thinks of Soderbergh — candidly, he’s one of my favorite living filmmakers — it’s difficult to deny he’s one of the hardest-working storytellers in Hollywood.
Though Presence isn’t a scary movie, it does start out like traditional horror fare. We see a real estate agent, played by Julia Fox, arrive at a newly listed house just ahead of a family interested in snatching it off the market. Soon, Rebecca (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) arrive with their two teenage children Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang) and before long, they’re all moved in. As we spend more time with the family, we see fractures in the relationship between Rebecca and Chris, while Chloe has become more reclusive after the unexpected death of her best friend. Eager to become popular at their new school district, Tyler invites swim teammate Ryan (West Mulholland) over to sneak drinks from mom’s liquor cabinet and he soon takes interest in Chloe.
Presence is the second collaboration between Soderbergh and blockbuster screenwriter David Koepp, their first being the excellent covid-era thriller Kimi and their next being Black Bag, set to release this March. Since the visual storytelling is limited to the vantage point of the titular “presence”, Koepp’s script is crucial in filling us in on what’s going on with this family and how this poltergeist fits into it. Though the dialogue can seem a bit too forced or on-the-nose at times, it nevertheless gives us what we need to attach ourselves to these characters. There are also several exchanges whose resonance doesn’t fully land until after the film’s ending; “there is an excellent man inside of you, Tyler; I would love to see him soon,” Chris chides his son after the latter mistreats his sister.
Another Soderbergh staple is working with smaller casts that are mixed with both recognizable faces and actors with more limited resumes. The latter, in this case, applies to Eddy Maday and West Mulholland, who give performances that initially read as “slack-jawed jock” but are given layers as the story progresses. The standout of the better-known actors is Chris Sullivan, playing a father at his wit’s end trying to remedy his daughter’s sadness and his son’s arrogance. I wish that Lucy Liu’s character had a bit more development — there are implications that whatever her character does for work isn’t on the up-and-up but never explicitly told what it is — but she gets a scene of walloping emotion towards the end.
Compared to other releases from the distributor Neon over the next few months, Presence is much more subtle and subdued. During the pre-roll for the movie, trailers played for upcoming titles The Monkey and Hell Of A Summer, both bombastic splatterfests that fit in better with the brand of iconoclastic product Neon tends to put out. In an effort to market Soderbergh’s latest, they’ve mimicked competitor A24’s style with off-kilter violin stabs and pull quotes that pitch it as a terrifying horror film and even “one of the scariest movies you’ll see this year”. Anyone who goes into Presence with that expectation will be disappointed but if you’re up for a quietly haunting tale about regret and redemption, then you’ll want to be present for this one.
Score – 3.5/5
New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Companion, a horror film starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid, that follows a weekend getaway among friends at a remote cabin, which unravels into chaos after one of the guests has a startling revelation about themselves.
Also playing in theaters is Dog Man, an animated superhero comedy starring Pete Davidson and Lil Rel Howery, following a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner who are injured together on the job but a life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together.
Streaming on Amazon Prime is You’re Cordially Invited, a romcom starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, about two weddings that are double-booked at the same venue, causing the father of one bride and the sister of the other bride to try and preserve the wedding weekend.