de facto film reviews 3 stars

Highly prolific filmmaker Steven Soderbergh once delivered some innovation with his skillfully mounted ghost story Presence, in which he once again utilizes digital cameras to capture the aesthetic of the shots being in the point of view of a ghost—and the film’s setting is in a house with a family going through various emotional stresses, up until its disturbing third act.

The film opens with the spirit floating through the bedrooms, hallways, and living room of an empty house. The film opens with a real estate agent (Julia Fox), who is presenting a family the house. The family consists of the father named Chris (Chris Sullivan), the other named Rebecca (Lucy Liu), and they have two teenage children named Chloe (Callina Liang) and Tyler (Eddy Maday). Even with a new home, the family is very dysfunctional with a lot of built-up tensions. Even with a new home, the family is distressed. Chris begins to notice that Choe’s emotional well-being continues to decline. She is still grieving from one of her best friend’s dying from a drug test. Meanwhile, Rebecca attempts to give more attention to Tyler, who gets upset with Chloe after she claims she feels a spirit in the home.

Presence (2024) | MUBI

Courtesy Neon

Chloe ends up developing a relationship with Ryan (West Mulholland), one of her classmates from high school who is very liked by many other girls. The spiritual presence smashes items and even the closet whenever Ryan hangs out in the room. He seems charming, but that spirit certainly wreaks havoc each time he’s with Chloe. Chris can sense something isn’t right and even hires a psychic to understand if there is any credence to the spiritual presence in their home.

Ryan, who at first comes off charming, holds some revealing truths that are quite unnerving. I will not spoil any details, but the writing by screenwriter David Koepp, along with Soderbergh’s execution, gives the film a very effective third act with a lot of tension building that I didn’t see coming. Soderbergh has always found various ways to shoot films and has experimented with various aesthetics over the years. With Presence, he returns to innovations, and he uses a lot of tracking shots with the Sony A9 camera with wide lenses to give it the eerie POV that gives it an eavesdropping effect.

Prescence

Courtesy Neon

While the film could have used a few more scenes of Ryan to build up his menacing ways, you end up feeling your skin crawl more from the humans than the spirit. It’s rather a unique approach, one that will probably offset viewers going in looking for more jump scares. Soderbergh and Koep are determined to show just how much more sinister humans can be than the spirits of the afterlife; they certainly deliver the goods. They offer something that feels refreshing and effective about how narcissism can lead to alarming impulses, setting aside a third act that is deeply disturbing, delivering a very creepy moment where you wish there were more spirits out there combating the actions of many diabolical individuals. What starts off feeling like another tiresome and gimmicky ghost movie ends up becoming more of a sophisticated and unique exercise. While this is not top-tier Soderbergh, it still leaves an impact.

PRESENCE is now playing in theaters