A One Mann’s Movies review of “Presence” (2025).
“Presence” – no, not a Christmas film (LOL!) This is the latest film from the prolific stable of Steven Soderbergh and it’s a creepy, rather than scary, ghost story with a twist.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Presence” Plot Summary:
A spirit roams the empty rooms of a suburban house watching as the Sullivan family move into it. Most seem oblivious to its presence. But their teenage daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) senses something, believing it to be the spirit of Nadia, her recently deceased schoolmate and best friend.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong threat, violence, sexual threat, language, sex”.)
Talent:
Starring: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Natalie Woolams-Torres, Lucas Papaelias, Julia Fox.
Directed by: Steven Soderburgh.
Written by: David Koepp.
Running Time: 1h 25m.
“Presence” Summary:
Positives:
- The premise, where the camera is the first person view of the ‘thing’, is neat.
- Some of the glances directly down the camera lens are chilling.
- Callina Liang as Chloe impresses in her feature debut.
- I really enjoyed the music score by Zack Ryan.
Negatives:
- The denouement of the story didn’t deliver on the promise of the first 30 minutes.
- The ending was (in the main) pretty predictable.
- As a ‘psychological horror’, it was distinctly lacking in ‘horror’.
- Some of the acting was a bit wooden.
Review of “Presence”:
A strong opening.
Whether you like this film will largely depend on whether, in the first 5 minutes, you buy into the concept that you are seeing the world through the eyes of a tormented spirit or, as my film reviewing friend the Reverend Andy Godfrey put it, just saw “a guy holding a steady cam”! For me, this was a first-party device that was novel and worked well. (The tag line of the film should have been “I see live people!”) The fact that we NEVER saw anything else other than that first-party view reminded me a bit of the recent and brilliant “Nickel Boys” and the even more recent (but less brilliant) “Here” (although in this case the camera was roaming around the house).
Things step up nicely when the Sullivan family move in and while everyone (at least at first) ignores the camera, it is Chloe (Callina Liang) who you realise is sneaking glances near to the camera and, at times, directly down the lens, which is a bit unnerving. Callina Liang, in her first feature film, really impressed me in delivering on that challenge.
Echoes of “Poltergeist”.
There were echoes for me of that classic Tobe Hooper/Spielberg horror “Poltergeist“, not only in terms of having the presence of a sex-charged teen in the house (I always associated Dominique Dunne’s character in some way as ‘powering’ with what was going on) but also in the way that the ‘events’ start small and build. In “Poltergeist” you’ll remember that things started to move, culminating in the brilliant “kitchen chair stack” scene. Similarly in this movie, Chloe notices that someone has been doing the tidying up of her bedroom while she’s been in the shower!
Another echo from that film is the arrival of a medium, with memories of Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) in the 1982 film. Here it is Lisa (Natalie Woolams-Torres), the sister-in-law of the realtor Cece (Julia Fox), who arrives with her money-hungry husband Carl (Lucas Papaelias). One of the ‘moments’ of the film for me was when the front door is opened and Lisa sees ‘the camera’ and briefly recoils in shock, gasping.
A family on the brink of disintegration.
Behind all the spooky goings on, there is a backstory of a family in trouble. It’s established that Chris (Chris Sullivan) is the stepfather on the scene and that Rebekah (Lucy Liu) is the mother of the two kids, Chloe and the elder teen Tyler (Eddy Maday). It’s also established that Tyler is the apple of her mother’s eye and that Chloe is suffering from grief through the recent loss of two school friends from drug overdoses, one of which is her best friend Nadia.
There are also marital fractures developing. Rebekah has done something bad at work (unspecified) that could have significant legal consequences and Chris (already struggling in the relationship) is taking legal advice.
All of this really knits together well with the mystery aspects which made me really positive about the film for the first half of it.
It fails to stick the landing.
Despite having the experienced skills of screenwriter David (“Jurassic Park”, “Mission: Impossible”, “Spider-Man”) Koepp behind it, the story fails to build on that early capital. With the introduction of Tyler’s friend Ryan (West Mulholland), as a ‘caring and respectful’ lover for the virginal Chloe, things take an unpleasant turn that never felt quite in keeping with the mood of the film to that point.
Apart from one twist that I didn’t see coming, the story arc is rather predictable. The psychic Lisa comments that the spirit doesn’t have awareness of whether it is in the “past or the present” but is aware that it has some purpose to fulfil. I was already ahead of the script by that point and had worked out the ending (well, one of two possible endings, to be fair). And I was right!
Great score.
I’d not heard of composer Zac Ryan before, but I was very impressed by the score. The music was brilliantly fitting with the film and the end title music worth sitting and listening to.
Summary Thoughts on “Presence”
For me, this was an interesting experiment by Soderburgh and worth a watch. Is it “horror”? No, not really. One of the “comments” in the trailer is “It Terrifies You…” (curiously, a quote without any attribution!). Well, if the “You” was you, you don’t see many horror films! For me, it was periodically a bit spooky, pleasantly so, but not remotely scary. But, compared to all of the cookie-cutter ‘horror’ films from last year that populated my “Worst Films of the Year” list (at the bottom of this post) this was a cut above them in terms of entertainment value.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Presence”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay4MJZH6_K8.
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