Presence is the latest film from director Steven Soderbergh who has one of the more interesting filmographies I’ve seen. It includes the Ocean’s Trilogy, Magic Mike, Contagion, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and Logan Lucky, a movie I really, really like. He was my most watched director last year too, as over the holidays I watched the Ocean’s Trilogy and Logan Lucky again!

I’m definitely a fan of his heist movies, but I was incredibly intrigued when I first heard he was directing this movie because it’s so different from his movies that I’m familiar with. 

Presence is listed as a supernatural thriller drama with a very simple premise:

“A family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone.”

Personally though, I’d classify this more as a drama with supernatural elements and not really a thriller, even if there was one moment where it gave me some chills. 

So should you make an appearance for Presence, or is this one better left ghosted?

My Thoughts

Writing this review feels a bit different for me because, as I start putting my thoughts together the night after watching the movie, I still don’t know what my final rating on the Heart-O-Meter will be. In the past, I’ve begun reviews with a clear rating in mind, only to revise it as I worked through my thoughts. This time, though, I’m writing with the specific goal of figuring out how I truly feel about the movie and whether or not the good outweighs the bad. 

Let’s start off with what I liked, which was the direction and more specifically, the camerawork. From the opening scene of the movie (which is why I don’t consider this a spoiler) Soderbergh makes it clear that the camera is a character. It is the presence in the house. The movie has a ton of beautiful oners where the camera just floats through the house as the people living in the house go about their day. As we went up the stairs, there weren’t obvious shakes of the camera with each step, as if a human was walking up the stairs which allowed me to really buy into this effect.

It was these early moments that I really loved what I was watching. It was such a unique and cool idea to have our “main character” be played by a camera. I’m just a humble film buff, so I have no idea if another movie has done something to this extent before, but damn did this feel so unique and cool. 

Don’t worry though, if this sounds a little too weird for you, we’ve got plenty of humans in the movie too. Soon after the movie begins, a family moves into this house where this presence is tethered. Lucy Liu plays Rebecca (the mother), Chris Sullivan plays Chris (the father), and the two kids are played by Callina Liang (Chloe, the sister) and Eddy Maday (Tyler, the brother). West Mulholland also plays Ryan, Tyler’s friend from school.

Before I dig into the performances, there was one downside to the choice to make the camera a character and it was how the movie transitions from scene to scene. Every time a scene concludes, we cut to black before it opens on the next scene. Sometimes this was done a bit more intentionally and organically but other times it wasn’t. For example, the presence in the house seems to feel most at home in the closet in Chloe’s room (as seen in the photo at the top of this review). Some scenes end with the presence returning to the closet, as if it’s sleeping, I guess, but sometimes we will just cut to black at the end of a conversation people have in the kitchen. Ultimately, I found that this hurts the pacing a bit as the movie feels like it’s constantly stopping and starting. At only 85 minutes long though, the pacing issues really didn’t bother me too much.

Now, let’s talk about the performances. Of the entire cast, the only standout for me was Chris Sullivan, who delivered a strong performance as Chris. Even now, I’m struggling to determine whether the issue with everyone else was due to bad performances or awful dialogue, but I’m leaning towards the latter. I mean, this was some of the most awful dialogue I’ve ever heard in a movie. The worst examples were almost all from the younger characters too. It’s incredibly jarring when people deliver dialogue that just doesn’t sound or feel right. This was especially true with Ryan and Tyler who talk like nobody else on earth. The script was written by 61-year-old David Koepp and it definitely feels like a 61-year-old wrote what they think Gen Zers sound like without actually verifying that with anyone. I tried to move past it earlier in the movie, but eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and I was quietly giggling every single time these characters said pretty much anything.

This was such a big issue for me that it’s really what drags the movie down so much. To make things worse, the narrative itself wasn’t incredibly strong either and I had guessed where the movie was going about 1/3rd of the way in. I’m also not someone who watches something and tries to guess how it will end either, it just seemed so obvious to me at a certain point. 

The kids are the main focus of the movie and so most of the narrative and emotional beats were weighed down by the absolutely awful dialogue they had. David Koepp in terms of box-office numbers is one of the most successful writers of all time, but if you look at his filmography, it includes some stinkers like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and The Mummy (2017).

I really wish Soderbergh had a script that was half as good as his direction and camerawork because I think I would’ve absolutely loved this movie if that were the case. 

Verdict

For me, a “mid” movie lacks anything remarkable, and that’s definitely not the case with Presence. So, after much deliberation, I’m giving Presence a “like it” rating on the Heart-O-Meter. 

While the script left a lot to be desired, particularly the clunky and laughable dialogue, it’s impossible to ignore the exceptional craftsmanship behind the camera. Soderbergh’s direction transforms what could have been a forgettable supernatural drama into something visually compelling and entirely unique. At just 85 minutes, it’s an easy watch, and the strengths of its filmmaking outweigh its narrative shortcomings.  
If you can overlook the script’s issues, you might just find Presence to be a hauntingly enjoyable experience that’s worth showing up for.

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By Shea Angus

I'm the creator of Screen Love Affair and I've been a lover of movies, TV, and video games for most of my life. I wanted to create a place for my friends and I to share our passion for the things that we love with the world!