Intensity 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 (anxiety and stress)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Written by David Koepp
Presence observes a family nearing a breaking point. The Paynes have just moved into a substantial craftsman home, and it came with a poltergeist. The audience watches from the ghost’s perspective as it meanders around the house, ducking into closets and the shadows when necessary. This is a family drama first, with the apparition being the witness. You travel from room to room listening in on conversations intended to be private, and watch as certain decisions pull at the threads that threaten to undo the family. Presence is a quiet and beautiful film, though it is wrenching to watch. There is horror, but not in the traditional sense, and it arrives with a flourish at the conclusion of the movie.
This movie is a hotly debated film within the horror community. It is, to be sure, a slow burner, particularly for the horror aspects. It has aspects of Hereditary, without the grisly violence. All of the stressful family drama is represented, though. All of the performances are tailored to apply pressure to the plot. This is a family with clearly visible fissures, and the proceedings have a voyeuristic quality, with the ghost playing a (mostly) passive role. Some critics admire the subtle build and internal strife, with hints of ghostly presence throughout. Others have gotten frustrated that there isn’t a more active poltergeist presence.
My suggestion? Wait for it. The ultimate actions that reveal everything like a series of emotional hammer blows are worth waiting for. The finale is heart-wrenching and makes all of your patience pay off.
The Cast of Presence
- Callina Liang plays Chloe Payne, a teenage girl whose best friend recently died just before the family moved into their new home.
- Eddy Maday plays Tyler Payne, Chloe’s older brother and the clearly favored son of their mother. Tyler is an athlete, and one of the primary reasons why the family has relocated is for his swimming career.
- Lucy Liu plays Rebekah Payne, Chloe and Tyler’s mother. Rebekah is obsessed with Tyler’s success and is struggling to emotionally connect with Chloe.
- Chris Sullivan plays Chris Payne, the family’s father, struggling to keep everyone together. He tries his best to help Chloe with her distress, but finds it very difficult.
- West Mulholland plays Ryan, one of Tyler’s new friends from the swim team, who has taken an interest in Chloe.
- Natalie Woolams-Torres plays Lisa, a medium brought in to evaluate the house’s spiritual connections.
A Synopsis of Presence:
A quiet presence in a large suburban home waits patiently, observing the prospective new homeowners, the Paynes, on a real estate tour. It drifts from the upstairs bedroom, downstairs, unnoticed as the family inspects the house. Tyler is a budding swim star. The Paynes want to move to this neighborhood to give him a better chance of getting a scholarship. The family dynamics are severely strained. Rebekah clearly favors Tyler over Chloe, putting strain on her and Chris. Chris tries hard to look after Chloe, but she has withdrawn. Adding to this friction is that Rebekah is up to some shady business dealings, which could have disastrous consequences. The Paynes are on the brink of splintering apart.
While Chloe mourns in her bedroom, the presence asserts itself in mildly ghostly ways. It subtly moves objects around her room. Chloe doesn’t see the manipulation, but discovers the results, mystified. Tyler brings his new swim team friend, Ryan, with him to the house. Ryan tells Chris that he has access to drugs that he can sneak from his pharmacist father, and that they should party. The observing spirit closes Chloe’s door to screen her from Ryan, but eventually Ryan finds Chloe. They are attracted to each other, and she confides her grief to Ryan, who comforts her.
Eventually, Ryan comes back to the house, and he and Chloe partake in some of the drugs he has smuggled in. When the two of them kiss, the presence knocks a shelf down before anything more serious can occur. Chloe believes this to be her friend Nadia in spirit form. When Chloe brings this to the family dinner, Tyler scoffs at her interpretation. This leads to the whole family flinging accusations at each other, leaving Chloe in tears and Chris contemplating divorce.
Witnesses to the Presence
The next time the family is all together, Tyler brags about catfishing a girl at school, showing his callous nature. Chloe is outraged at Tyler’s humiliating treatment of another girl. Before further recriminations can fly, the presence takes the opportunity to wreck Tyler’s bedroom. The family runs upstairs and witnesses the destruction.
The family is now convinced that there is a ghost, but after contacting the real estate agent, there have been no recorded deaths in the home. So Chris finds Lisa, a medium, through a friend at work, to discover what is happening. Lisa determines that the presence is a confused spirit and may not experience time in the same linear way we do. Perhaps this is a harbinger of things to come.
Tensions mount as emotional wounds are reopened within the family. Is the presence evidence of evil intent, or is something else sinister operating that they can’t perceive?
Evaluation of Presence:
Presence is a movie that is typically lauded by critics but divisive for audiences. Soderbergh’s confident cinematography proves once again that he knows how to use a camera to tell the story. Ever since Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and later films like Ocean’s 11 and Unsane, he has used the camera as part of the narrative. This is a lovely film, and the way he uses a very simple camera (a Sony mirrorless camera with a stabilizer) allows the perspective to drift from room to room. It is shot in a floating, first-person, ghost style. Remember, this is a man who filmed Unsane with an iPhone. He is also a master at editing, and his successful execution in Presence is essential to the big payoff.
David Koepp has created characters with textured layers. These are flawed protagonists: some have redemptive arcs, while others are stuck in their lanes. Those character decisions give the drama a fateful tug-of-war essence. You will need to buy into the film’s drama to enjoy it. In this way, it is a slow burner. It’s quiet, with tension building in the family’s relationships.
Full credit to the whole cast. Chloe is relatable and understandably traumatized, but also a hot mess who is prone to making bad decisions. Tyler is an insensitive sibling, in dire need of an injection of sympathy. Rebekah is driven and cold, and full of secrets. Chris is trying to hold the family together, and failing. Great characters. Not easy characters to like, but therein lies the drama.
As often is the case with ghost stories, this film is subtle. It requires patience. But the ending pays off all the tension with ultimate heartbreak. Not quite a complete bummer, but it will make you ache.
Concluding Thoughts:
This is a masterfully constructed film. I always enjoy watching a Soderbergh film. It’s a very inventive and languid drama. You’ll have to be cool with the pacing, but I never found it dull despite the deliberate pace. It’s not going to satisfy the gore-hounds, but it might just be the perfect film to watch with someone who is more reluctant to blood-and-guts jump scare horror, but is up for something full of tension and menace. That said, it would only make for a good date movie if you like talking about the movie afterwards. That was my regret, having watched this by myself on my couch. I needed to discuss the film after it was done.
The MPAA gave Presence and R rating for violence, drug material, language, sexuality, and minors doing things they shouldn’t. It is currently widely available online on Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime.
