Presence review: Chiller where audience becomes the ghost
While he made his name in the mainstream with the Magic Mike and Ocean’s Eleven films, Steven Soderbergh has experimented with genre and form in a number of smaller movies. In the horror genre, he made 2011’s frighteningly prescient pandemic horror Contagion, and delved into the darker corners of the mind with 2018’s Unsane. Now, he creates a chilling mystery in psychological drama Presence.
Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan star as a successful married couple with two teenage children. They move into a new house in an affluent neighbourhood, their material success belying troubles beneath the surface. Worse, it soon becomes clear they are not alone in the home.
While advertised as a scary movie, the reality is something closer to a family drama with an otherworldly element. Mixing different genres, Soderbergh finds a satisfying formula in his concoction.
The headline innovation is the way the director makes the audience’s viewpoint become the presence. The camera hugs the characters, nestling closer until one of them senses its presence and it moves away. We stand in the room as the family argue and sit on the porch as Sullivan’s beleaguered patriarch tries to solve one of his various problems.
It makes the camera feel like a character but avoids feeling like a gimmick. Those arriving expecting to leap from their seats may feel cheated – there’s only the occasional throwing of objects or phantom breath – but given a chance there’s an interesting meditation on death, grief, and moving on.
Of the cast, Sullivan is the most intriguing as the man trying to hold everything together. His scenes with Eddy Maday, playing his arrogant son Tyler, allow him to express the frustration of a father who seems to have lost control. Liu is a force to be reckoned with, her confident bluster glossing over a deep fear of what’s to come. Callina Liang comes into her own as daughter Chloe, rising above wobbly dialogue with a performance that transcends the ‘troubled teen’ archetype.
West Mulholland is an intriguing addition as Ryan, Tyler’s friend who seems to take a shine to Chloe. There’s a chill when he walks into frame that’s every bit as unsettling as the poltergeist activity. Celebrity Julia Fox appears briefly as a real estate agent, in an appearance likely to benefit the film’s promotion more than its quality.
Best viewed as a supernatural mystery rather than horror, Presence is the output of a director still exploring what’s possible within the medium and the result is pleasingly unusual.
• Presence directed by Steven Soderbergh is in cinemas from 24 January