Presence (POV Haunted House in Suburbia with Dark Secrets)
Every time the promo for Presence, by serial formal experimenter Steven Soderbergh, touted its novel conceit – a haunted house story from the ghost’s point of view – I did the old horror nerd scoff. “I guess we already forgot about Beetlejuice, not to mention [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] and [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS],” I said, adjusting my geek glasses. It turns out the claim is literal: the whole film is shot in long gliding wide-lens, first-person takes from the POV of an unseen, unheard…well, presence. It follows a well-to-do family–mom Rebecca (Lucy Liu), dad Chris (Chris Sullivan), and teenagers Tyler (Eddie Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang), who move into a new house shortly after Chloe has lost a friend to an apparent drug overdose.The presence observes the family, occasionally intervening, as cracks appear in their relationships, and Chloe begins a covert romance with a schoolmate named Ryan (West Mulholland).
If Presence makes any kind of splash, it will doubtless provoke conversation about whether the film can be considered horror. On one hand, it uses a common genre device – the POV shot from an unseen observer – to disquieting effect as we observe this family in their private moments, unsure whose eyes we are seeing through or what their intentions are. But it’s also short on conventional scares, seemingly more interested in the slow-boil family conflicts. Though not technically found-footage, it has a Paranormal Activity way of inviting the viewer to fill the gaps in its stingy narrative. We know there’s misfortune on the wind, but we don’t know whom or what to be nervous about. When the nature of the threat is finally revealed, it resonates with the 21st-century suburban unease the film is predicated on. Soderbergh remains an impossible filmmaker to pin down, and I wish him many more years of confounding expectations.
Written by Cthulen, Dead Dreamer
Presence (2021, US)
Steven Soderbergh
4 / 5
