‘Presence’ Review – Paranormal Purgatory

Written by David Koepp (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Mummy 2017) and directed by Steven Soderbergh (Logan Lucky, Side Effects), Presence has an intriguing concept that doesn’t completely work in its execution. Shot in three weeks almost entirely in one location with a $2 million budget, Presence is a creative powerhouse that lacks a lasting impression.

All of Presence is from the perspective of an entity in a suburban house. The supernatural thriller seemingly has no close-ups while the cinematography is different in a way that seems like it was shot with a slight fish-eye lens. A family, The Paynes – Rebekah (Lucy Liu), Chris (Chris Sullivan), Chloe (Callina Liang), and Tyler (Eddy Maday), moves into the empty house revealed at the beginning of the film.

The SNAFU’d relationship between The Paynes is palpable as soon as they’re introduced. Rebekah is committing financial fraud and her husband Chris is contemplating separation or divorce. Rebekah also prioritizes her older son Tyler and his athleticism in swimming over her younger daughter Chloe, who barely ranks acknowledgement. Meanwhile, Chris is concerned for Chloe since her best friend abruptly died and she still hasn’t gotten over it.

The idea of a horror or supernatural film from the perspective of the ghost or entity is insanely cool, but the issue here is that this presence isn’t given much to do besides witness people have sex and argue.

There are expected supernatural elements here like doors mysteriously opening or closing on their own, a stack of books floating in the air one by one and being stacked neatly on a nearby desk, and shelves and posters being ripped off the wall.

Before The Paynes arrive, the first scene of the film is supposed to be this entity wandering around an empty house. It’s fascinating at first but becomes dizzying and nauseating, which may represent the claustrophobic aspect of being trapped somewhere with no escape but still not entirely fun to watch.

Presence features the first truly nasty on-screen character of the year in Ryan (West Mulholland). Ryan is a popular classmate of Tyler and a drug dealer. He gets romantically involved with Chloe and tries to appear nonchalant and supportive.

Cracks bubble up to the surface early on as he loses his temper often and his rambling typically sounds like a villain attempting to explain their evil plan in detail to a subdued victim.

The film’s editing is bizarre since most sequences either feel like one-take or suddenly shift to black before the next scene. Presence is presented like a bunch of scenes randomly stitched together that just happen to make a semi-coherent story.

The acting in Presence is fine, but two of the four Payne family members are complete jerks while the other two are pushovers. This dynamic makes it difficult to get invested in any of their character developments.

The existence of the entity in the film is deeply connected to grief and trauma, which allows people who have almost died or experienced something truly traumatic to see or feel someone who has died.

A medium is brought into The Payne’s home after everyone but Chris stops making fun of Chloe’s encounters with the entity. The medium does little for the film apart from solidifying that Chloe isn’t making it up and drawing attention to an item in their living room that will be a part of the last scene in the film.

There is a unique concept in Presence that hasn’t entirely been explored in the genre, especially when combined with captivatingly different cinematography and a talented cast. But there aren’t enough actual horror elements in Presence to be scary, and the family drama is mostly uninteresting apart from this entity being a part of their lives.

Presence is a close-but-no-cigar thriller with unusual camera tricks and everyone staring off slightly to the left or right to drive its sense of mystery.