‘Presence’ review: Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp deliver a uniquely thrilling ghost story

What if a ghost may inform its personal story however not communicate? That’s the wildly compelling premise of Presence. Director Steven Soderbergh reteams with Kimi screenwriter David Koepp for an unconventional haunted home story, creating a movie that’s sharply humorous, beguiling, a bit chilling, and in the end candy.

And all of it begins with a dizzying opening shot.

The digital camera is a personality in Presence

Presence opens inside a home on the break of dawn. It is nonetheless darkish inside because the digital camera swans round from kitchen to hallway, up the steps and thru the bedrooms and again once more. There is a slight fish-eye lens impact, even within the darkness, turning the corners of a home into ominous shadows. And the motion of the digital camera suggests not some passive viewer, however a perspective, a presence.

The following scene is established with daylight. The presence watches (as will we) as a fancy actual property agent (Julia Fox) arrives to indicate the area to the Payne household. The mom, Rebecca (Lucy Liu), is straight away bought, gushing about how the placement means her golden little one Tyler (newcomer Eddy Maday) might be in one of the best college district to observe his trajectory as a trophy-winning swimmer. In the meantime, dad Chris (That is Us‘ Chris Sullivan) worries the transfer can be onerous on their different teen, Chloe (Basis‘s Callina Liang), who has not too long ago misplaced her finest pal to a presumed drug overdose. 

The inherent battle between Lui’s smothering Boy Mother and Sullivan’s earnestly weak Lady Dad performs out in passive aggression and outright arguments, all with the wandering eye of the presence floating round as a silent witness. However this being, whose identification, identify, and gender are unclear for a lot of the film, is most centered on Chloe, who’s alone in her grief — till she’s not. 

The purpose-of-view perspective in horror is mainly used to encourage worry within the viewers, implying a sinister drive or slasher is sizing up a possible sufferer. However right here, the digital camera’s motion conveys no unwell intent, partially due to the way in which the presence tends to cover in Chloe’s closet, as whether it is scared, not aiming to scare. Props to Soderbergh, who additionally serves because the movie’s editor and cinematographer. Lengthy takes that transfer from one room to a different, following battle and dialog, create a pulsing vulnerability for a personality we can’t see or hear, but perceive all the identical. I used to be in awe that when the digital camera pans from one hurting member of the family to a different, I may really feel the craving of the presence to be seen, to affix in, to scream. Presence is extraordinary for all it tells by means of its transferring camerawork alone. 

Presence’s solid is extraordinary

In fact, all Soderbergh’s elegant cinematography may have been for nought if it weren’t for a solid that would grasp the idea. As it’s, I will be completely shocked if Presence does not get a Finest Cinematography Oscar nomination. 

The movie calls for actors play out lengthy takes that generally contain advanced choreography. Inside that, they want their traces to land on digital camera however casually. And past that, there’s the creeping shift in conduct because the presence makes itself identified. Some in the home start to sense it, and their gaze should hook up with the lens in a manner that’s current however not concrete. This fashion we consider that what they see seems as nothing, because the digital camera won’t ever go away the presence’s perspective to disclose the residing’s. Liang has the heaviest elevate right here, as she engages most immediately with the ghost, generally sensing it, but in addition realizing the way it has the facility to maneuver issues in her room. Sharing this revelation together with her household solely sparks a battle and extra violent paranormal exercise.

For her half, Liu is completely chilly as a company shark with a ruthless moral sense, delivering a monologue to her smirking son that is so electrifyingly frank it sparked laughs from a shocked viewers. Sullivan is her foil, taking part in a human teddy bear determined to avoid wasting his daughter from a despair he grapples to understand. Maday sizzles as a merciless jock who has little persistence for his freaky sister, whereas Liang shoulders the majority of the movie, balancing her scenes of ghostly intrusion with meditations on grief and a budding secret romance with “the best man at school” (West Mulholland in Jared Leto circa My So-Known as Life mode). Collectively, they really feel like an actual household, the dialogue present and crisply pure, grounding the true so the uncanny hits all of the tougher. 

Presence is a welcomed style twist

Soderbergh has performed in varied genres from heist motion pictures like Ocean’s Eleven and Logan Fortunate, to psychological thrillers like Unsane and Kimi, the espionage actioner Haywire, and the attractive comedies that make up the Magic Mike trilogy. Whereas technically Presence is a horror film in conceit, Soderbergh does not really feel certain by the calls for to make it spooky. In truth, the home isn’t remotely creepy. Admittedly, the music has a flare of whining devices that recall gothic horror motion pictures of the the Forties, however this clashes with the girly-pop aesthetic of Chloe’s bed room, successfully underlining how the presence feels misplaced right here. 

Credit score to Koepp, who like Soderbergh has lept from one style to a different, with screenplay credit on the whole lot from Jurassic Park to Mission: Unattainable, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future, and my private favourite, the darkish diva comedy Demise Turns into Her. However his most related work to Presence is the woefully underrated Stir of Echoes, a 1999 horror film, the place Kevin Bacon performs a person with newly woke up skills to commune with the lifeless. Now, Presence is not as overtly eerie as Stir of Echoes, which is a extra conventional ghost story in that sense. However they share the same sensibility in Koepp’s rigorously constructed characters and ultimate act twist. Basically, his thumb print is obvious. 

Koepp employs style conventions like poltergeist exercise: objects moved when the residing aren’t trying or rooms trashed earlier than their very eyes. However due to Soderbergh’s dedicated POV photographs, these actions do not feel like they’re meant to scare as a lot as they’re to precise a wordless frustration. Likewise, when the household brings in a medium, Lisa (Natalie Woolams-Torres), she seems to be nothing such as you may count on. Somewhat than a frail white girl in black witchy apparel, this supernatural communicator is a sturdy girl of shade, carrying a heat flannel and denims, as if she’s simply come from her job as a barista or a kindergarten instructor. These delicate tweaks give an exhilarating sense of chance to Presence, promising the viewers it will not play by the foundations and so the movie may go anyplace. And the place it goes it isn’t solely satisfyingly shocking, however neatly sentimental. 

Ultimately, Presence is a exceptional union of a intelligent idea and an excellent execution. Within the improper fingers, fumbled or flashy camerawork may have crushed the character constructing of the ghost. Soderbergh’s regular hand is so conscious in its efficiency which you could virtually really feel the expressions of a face you can not see. The solid expertly builds a plausible and complicated household bond whereas effortlessly finishing choreographed blocking. And Koepp delivers a ultimate act that’s stomach-churningly tense but tender. All of this collides to make a sublimely realized ghost story that’s simply among the best movies of the 12 months. 

Disgrace you may have to attend till subsequent 12 months to see it. 

Presence was reviewed out of its worldwide premiere on the 2024 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. The movie is scheduled for theatrical launch within the US Jan. 17, 2025.