How you feel about Presence may largely depend on how many trailers or ads you’ve seen for the movie.  They are effective haunted house trailers that claim that Presence is one of the “scariest movies of the year”, and that it “leaves your heart on the floor”. Wildly out of context audio plays over clips of traumatized people walking through an eerily lit house, or brief glimpses of ghostly behavior flashes on the screen. It’s great marketing, it just fails to mention that Presence isn’t a horror movie at all.

• Directed by Steven Soderbergh
• Written by David Koepp
• Starring: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang

Summary

Presence is an excellent supernatural family drama.  Every interaction is seen from the first-person perspective of the ghost that is haunting this dysfunctional family. It’s uncomfortable and off-putting from the first encounter with the realtor. The longer we get to know the family, the worse the dynamic gets. Mom Rebecca is devoted to golden child and swimming star Taylor; the dad, Chris, feels over shadowed by her professional success and concerned about legal trouble she may be in, as well as worried about their ignored daughter, Chloe. Chloe is struggling with the deaths of two of her classmates, including her best friend, from accidental overdoses. 

In the perspective of the ghost, we watch as this family alternates between ignoring each other’s pain and picking at visible weaknesses. Chloe seems particularly sensitive to the spirit and picks up on its existence right away.  This does not endear her to Taylor or Rebecca, although Chris continues to try his best to be there for her.  This is not a family that needed the added stress of a ghost, which makes them perfect for a haunting.

Spoiler Free Review

Honestly, I’m torn on how to write about this one. I don’t want to get into any more of the plot than that, and even that feels too spoiler-y.  But I also really want to talk about this movie.  For now, I’m going to stick to a spoiler-free review and come back to this once it hits streaming to dig into heavier discussions.

Presence is a movie that I feel needs a couple of disclaimers: Disclaimer #1 – this is not a scary haunted house movie.  The ads are setting it up for disappointment if you are looking for it to deliver on that front.  Disclaimer #2, and the most problematic one for me: the less you know about the specific plot points, the better.

Family can be Scary

If you are looking for a deeply moving family drama through a slightly different lens, this has a lot to offer. The almost impartial point of view allows us, the viewer, to haunt the family. As they wonder why the presence is there, their questions give extra weight to each scene. Why is this scene important to watch? What does it tell us about the ghost, the family, and the themes that the script is building up to? This is a film that I think I’ll enjoy a lot more on a rewatch, when I can keep the ending in mind and really dig into some of those scenes with all the added context.

Does it all work? It’s not a perfect movie; there are some heavy-handed moments and characters that veer into cartoon levels of villainy.  I almost never say this, but I feel like it could have been like five minutes longer to give some added context to some weird jump cuts. All of those are minor complaints, compared to the emotional impact of the final scenes.

About Cinematography

I would be remiss if I did not spend time talking about the choice to film in first-person perspective. Soderbergh did the camera work himself, although he used an alias in the credits. One of the elements I enjoyed the most about the camerawork was in the climax; as tension increased, the perspective took on a distorted, almost-fisheye quality. This slightly surreal visual reinforced the emotional state of the presence.

Control comes up a lot, and it’s an interesting theme for this movie.  Horror movies have from time to time asked what role the audience plays in any tragedies occurring on-screen. Funny Games and The Cabin in the Woods are two that bring the audience’s participation into the film itself, to mixed results.  Both of those movies are very tonally different than Presence. Honestly, I think as long as filmmakers are asking the questions in new ways, there’s nothing wrong with iterations on a concept.   Presence is, in a lot of ways, about how little control the viewer has,  or how little control anyone has.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for an edge-of-your-seat, nightmare-inducing, haunted house tale, Presence is not it. It’s not scary, like at all. It is tragic and moving, especially if you come from a family with anything in common with the dysfunctional one featured here.  If you are more in the mood for an atmospheric drama with supernatural elements, there’s a lot to like here. It’s a beautiful film, it’s just not horror, and its marketing campaign is doing it a disservice by implying it is.

Presence is in theaters now:

Check out my other horror reviews here:

• Wolf Man
• Nosferatu