PRESENCE

Steven Soderbergh’s PRESENCE

Movie Review By

Tom Lavagnino

What’s it like to be a ghost?

Steven Soderbergh’s new movie PRESENCE answers the question by placing we, the audience, within the POV of such a spiritual entity for the entirety of the film. There’s never an establishing shot of the house; we never leave the house. There are no cut-aways; every scene is an unbroken “take” from the ghost’s viewpoint. We never get a close-up of any of the human characters — except for an instance or two when the presence “gets too close,” and spooks the person-in-question.

Soderbergh’s bold conceit commences with a roundelay of the home-in-question, the camera roaming through each empty room, and up and down the staircase, with a confident, almost proprietary comportment. The house then gets shown by a realtor (Julia Fox), the family buys it, and the mother (Lucy Liu), father (Chris Sullivan), son (Eddy Maday) and daughter (Callina Liang) move in — with tensions immediately evident.

But the tensions have nothing to do with the occupying ghost. Rather, the presence coolly observes: Mother seems hyper-intent on her work. Father appears to have something going on that may or may not be legally actionable. Son consorts with a school pal of questionable morality. And — most impactfully — Daughter reels painfully, visibly overcome by the tragic fate of a school friend.

These volatile feelings draw “us” in. And as the presence moves closer and closer to the family — both literally and emotionally — it elicits an odd and surprising self-affinity; we like this ghost!

Okay, maybe it’s not to a Casper The Friendly degree. But the presence’s perspective (entirely ours!) seems, through the rigor of the story’s unique presentation, to be characterizationally good-natured, somehow — despite its never being glimpsed. This paranormal entity’s “actions” are clearly proactive and positive; PRESENCE is a ghost story, sans ghost, that showcases a singularly benevolent view of paranormal activity.

The bulk of the credit for the movie’s effectiveness goes to Soderbergh himself, of course. Seemingly always on the prowl for a fresh cinematic challenge (this is his first no-holds-barred horror) (although UNSANE and CONTAGION have their moments!), this slow-burn of a movie, entirely devoid of “jump scares,” elicits an escalating-in-intensity creep factor through drips and drabs of nuance, culminating in a wild, dramatic finale that — while suggestively pre-ordained — nevertheless takes your breath away.

Thusly, PRESENCE could not be more distinct from contemporary studio-style horror movies. That the film’s focus is on recognizable human behavior rather than old-dark-house style pyrotechnics is a testament to Soderbergh’s camerawork/direction/editing, the austere script by David Koepp, and the naturalistic acting of the family quartet.

The thesis and question the movie ultimately seems to ask is: Would it really be so bad to have a presence such as this in your house?

If it’s the ghost of THE RING or THE WOMAN IN BLACK or THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE — yes.