Our Editor was hoping that Steven Soderbergh’s new film would open on the 25th December so that that film could be announced, ‘Looking forward to receiving some Christmas Presence?’ But it wasn’t so it doesn’t and the nearest our Editor gets to working in marketing is a car boot sale. Instead Presence is a haunted house film and is the latest from director Steven Soderbergh who has the clout to make far more experimental films between his larger budgeted commercial films. The experiment here is that the film is told wholly from the ghost’s point of view ( with a slightly distorted wide angle lens) with the director himself operating the camera. The film was shot covertly one summer in a single house location with the opening shot giving us a tour of the interior that gives us a sense of geography for that which will follow.
A realtor keen for a quick sale gives a family a preview of the house and it is mum Rebekah (Lucy Liu) who takes a shine to it putting in an offer and the family move in shortly after.But it’s a family that’s is already with issues. Daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) is mourning the death of her friend from a drugs overdose, Dad Chris (Chris Sullivan ) has some untold legal problem and son Tyler is a sports jock doted on by his mother and all of them are watched over by the unseen ghost drifting through the house eavesdropping on conversations and overlooking the family’s interaction. The Presence of the title is not just the ghosts – Chris is giving serious consideration to leaving his Rebekah, Rebekah favours their son over a still traumatized Chloe and Chloe is desperately bereaved over her friend’s death and those tensions are heightened further as the presence of the ghost manifests itself sometimes subtly sometimes overtly and if there’s one thing the ghost could have done its to turn off all the lamps that seem to be constantly on in the house even during the day and might go some way to explain a US energy crisis. It is team Dad & daughter v team Mum & son drawn up as good guys v if not bad then certainly less favourable guys. All of this done in lengthy single takes ending in an abrupt cut to black screen before continuing at a different incident with the house.
Haunted house fans are likely to be disappointed as Presence is not the horrific or creepy spook fest that swerves the standard tropes of ghost stories. Instead the ghost is in some sort of limbo in a similar premise to the 2017 film A Ghost Story with Rooney Mara but with Chloe gradually becoming aware of such a presence believing it might be her dead friend that is often benign intervening when needed and those moments are often to do with Tyler’s new school friend Ryan (West Mulholland) who has designs on Chloe. It’s this that takes it into thriller territory in the third act and for some it may be a spike in interest in a story that is ultimately a conventional tale given the gimmick of being shot from a ghosts POV.
related feature : ‘A Ghost Story – REVIEW
related feature : Steven Soderburgh & Adam Driver introduce ‘Logan Lucky’ to London critics…..
Here’s the Presence trailer……
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