Almost out of nowhere, to me, came Presence. I think I had read something about it. It was Steven Soderbergh, so it had some weight behind it.
I watched it on last night… and what a treat.
Presence stars Lucy Lui, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Julia Fox and Natalie Woolams-Torres. Soderbergh directs and David Koepp writes. Both Soderberg and Koepp have had hits and misses. Both though, when they have hits, they really hit.
The Story
The story is a newish take on the horror story:
A family becomes convinced they are not alone after moving into their new home in the suburbs.
That’s nothing new, but how about a movie shot from the perspective of a ghost in the house? We have seen something like this. The Others springs to mind, but this was original, to me anyway.
The movie opens with a wide-angle lens, inside the house. It moves around the empty house, from one empty room to another. A lady turns up and we follow her into the kitchen. She’s a real estate agent and is about to show the house.
Rebekah (Liu) and Chris (Sullivan) turn up with their kids Chloe (Liang) and Tyler (Maday). Chloe goes upstairs and into what will become her room, and the presence follows.
She thinks she sees the camera hiding in the closet.
They end up moving in and getting settled. Each time we see any of them, it’s always from this wide-angled lens who just seems to watch them. It seems especially interested in Chloe.
Chloe is in the shower, which we don’t see, but the presence puts her books away. When she comes back into the room, she’s startled as she knows the books have moved.
Who’s Haunting Who?
It doesn’t take long for te viewer to realise that the camera is the ghost in the house. It seems to just watch the family, but Chloe is put in danger. A guy is planning on slipping her a roofie and it manages to save her.
You realise that the presence isn’t trying to hurt the family, like in most ghost stories. This one is trapped in the house with them and seems protective over Chloe.
That’s all I’ll say about the story, but it was very interesting. In fact, by the end I had gone from lazing on my sofa to sat upright, and saying to myself:
“Wait, so that means…so when it was…hang on, that shows…”
The more I thought about it, the cleverer it got. I need to see it again now I know the end, as I think it would open the story and you would notice the subtle hints the movie is giving you.
Soderbergh
As I said at the outset, Soderbergh is one of those directors that is either hit or miss. He’s got a style about him, and he is known for lots of takes. Presence actually surprised me as some of the shots are quite long and complex.
He sounds like a bit of a perfectionist, and the shots in this were complex, with some interesting acting. In fact, some of the direction is exceptional. I love seeing long shots with no edits. I think it’s a real talent.
The fact that the entire camera is the Presence in the house is really clever. The more you watch it, the cleverer it becomes. I mean, there are times when you wonder why it doesn’t move objects, but you can forgive it.
There was one thing that annoyed me. There is no music in the movie, apart from background radio. However, there is one shot that had a score over the top of it, this was an odd choice. For a moment, it took me out of the movie.
Apart from that, I did love the ‘knowing’ looks at the camera. Chloe, and later a psychic who visits the house, knows there is a presence.
Now and then, they glance at the camera, like they aren’t sure, but they know something is there.
Overall
The Presence is a fresh take on a warn-out story. Seeing a haunted house from the ghost’s viewpoint was an interesting take. It meant you had to include the family, but only the bits that are important to the story. The rest of the time, the ghost would just be wandering around.
At one point, when Chloe looked like she was going to get roofied I thought it was going a bit woke. The guy who was going to drug her was trying to sleep with her, but it was all ‘her choice’. It came over a little ‘Men are creeps, and women have that choice’.
Even though I did roll my eyes, it paid off in the end and explained what was going on. I had a change of heart as the story expanded and it was a satisfying ending.
In fact, the ending of the Presence was great! As I said, I actually sat up on the sofa with a million thoughts in my head, good ones. In fact, going to bed, I kept thinking how clever it was.
If you fancy something a little different, I would highly recommend Presence. I wouldn’t say it’s a horror. It’s creepy but not scary. It is very engaging though and only 90 minutes long.
Presence is available on VoD.
