Presence Movie Review

Presence is a Horror film written by David Koepp David Koepp is a famous American Director and a sc >> Read More... and directed by Steven Soderbergh. It features Lucy Liu Lucy Liu is a popular American model and actress. >> Read More... , Julia Fox, Chris Sullivan, Benny Elledge, Lucas Papaelias, Callina Liang, Natalia Woolams-Torres, Daniel Danielson, Jared Wiseman, Eddy Maday and others. Zack Ryan has given the music for this film. The producers of the film are Julie M. Anderson, Ken Meyer, and Michael Sugar. Peter Andrews is the cinematographer of the film. Mary Ann Bernard is the editor of the movie.

Plot

The film is set in a newly renovated hundred-year-old, two-story house, which a realtor tried to sell to a family of four. Rebekah, the mom of the family and the one whose decisions are final decides to buy the house. She is fond of her son Tyler, a competitive swimmer with a nasty streak and neglects her daughter Chloe. She recently lost of a dear friend to a drug overdose, as supposedly presumed, and is struggling to get over the trauma. So, Chris, the dad of the family, tries to provide the much needed support to her and ask her mother to do treat her daughter and son as equal. Soon after they shift to this new house, she senses an otherworldly presence there. What is this feeling? What was the real reason for Chloe’s friend’s death? Is there anyone present there in this house? All these questions are answered in the latter half of the story.

Star Performances

Presence is a film that often asks its actors to act out their mundane and routine lives, and still, they manage to make it engaging. The casting o the film is near perfect. Rebekah, in the role of Liu, shows some hard edges personality but never makes her such a monster that makes the audience doubt her affairs or prevents them from feeling for her when she suffers a crushing blow. Sullivan swiftly showcases Chris’ tenderness toward his fragile and petrified daughter and his loyalty, even if tested, but also his tormenting exasperation with family frictions. A budding actress Liang effortlessly delved into the skin of Chloe, a damaged yet independent spirit, and displayed exceptional strength and decisiveness in the face of danger. Also, Maday and Mulholland while playing the teenagers, effectively portrays the broken and selfish moral codes of that age. The rest of the cast helped in enhancing the quality of the final product.

Analysis

The psychological thriller Presence is not the supernatural jump-scare fest one may have anticipated; it follows a fractured family as a mysterious supernatural force infiltrates their new home and takes an interest in their daughter, Chloe. As in any other haunted house stories, real and fictional, there exists a emotionally tormented and weak child who eventually becomes the first witness of unnatural happenings. And Chloe, whose recently lost her dear friend due to drug overdose and who’s neglected by her mother in favor of her golden-boy brother, is one such classic example as she is the first person to sense that there’s something else there with them in the house. The film embraces many of your typical haunted house hallmarks: the flickering lights, the puffs of air, and the random shattering glassware. But despite its horror trappings, the film is more of a taut character drama; a single-location nightmare that chronicles the Payne family’s unraveling. Part of the fun is watching Presence’s plot unfold slowly, like leafing through a carefully curated family photo album. While it is in no way the focus of Presence, Soderbergh and Koepp get to discuss elements of the afterlife, religion, and more significant questions that they usually don’t touch on in their films. It’s not a significant part of the narrative, but it adds a bit of heft to the restraint of this film. As sole cinematographer, Soderbergh’s  (with a pseudo name  Peter Andrews) camera imitates the film’s invisible yet permeating entity, tracing this family’s every move as a voyeuristic force trained on Chloe for reasons disturbingly unclear. His approach is far from the ordinary as he shifts from wide angle shots to close ups where one can observe the hairs on the neck of the actors while tracing every possible angle in the house. He tries to make viewers feel like they are tracing through the life of the family alongside our apparition. Zack’s rich and intense music steadily builds in the gravitas around the presence of something abnormal, taking on the flavor of an old-school horror score.

As Soderbergh and Koepp tighten the screws through a twisty reveals of new information via an external character, the legitimacy of which is never proven. The camera leaves the house only to captures the aftermath of the whole climatic incident. While particular sequences reveal land with haunting jump-scares, others strain regarding the presence’s motivations. However, the ultimate focus remains on the family’s fraying bonds, wisely avoiding any trite good-versus-evil clash. We are left haunted not by CGI specters, but the all-too-human dysfunctions within and around us.

What’s There?

• Steven Soderbergh gives us a ghost story that is unlike what we have already seen.
• Presence's excellent cast creates a domestic horror story that leaves you on the edge.
• The film's technical achievements are incredible, nicely avoiding jump scares.

What’s Not There?

• They could've dived deeper into their discussion of the afterlife and more significant concepts.
• The film has too many forgettable shots.

Verdict

Lacking commercial appeal and a neatly tied resolution, Presence is yet another example of Soderbergh’s ability to reject the ordinary cinema constraints and do something innovative that will go down in the future of film-making. It is not an out-n-out horror film but focuses more on the psychological aspect of unnatural activities. The result is the kind of haunting ghost story that’ll linger with you long after you’ve closed the front door.