‘Presence’: Sundance Review

Dir: Steven Soderbergh. US. 2024. 85mins

One thing is lurking in the home which has simply been bought by a dysfunctional household in Steven Soderbergh’s newest movie – a juicy setup that gives the adventurous filmmaker with a chance to mess around with kind whereas delivering elegant shivers of dread.

Riffs on the conventions of the haunted-house thriller

Like a number of current Soderbergh initiatives, Presence exudes a way of experimentation — a liberating need to attempt issues on a low funds — and this subdued ghost story contains a subjective digicam wherein all the movie is seen from the angle of the invisible entity who haunts the house. The result’s inviting and intriguing and, though the payoff fails to dwell as much as the sooner reels, this modest endeavour reveals the director agreeably persevering with to push himself out of his consolation zone.

Screening at Sundance, Presence will clearly be a draw for Soderbergh followers, and the movie’s stars Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan (who was a part of the Soderbergh-directed The Knick) impress as a married couple at an deadlock. By way of the director’s smaller-scale choices of late, this slow-burn thriller is probably most much like 2018’s disorienting, impishly creative Unsane, which grossed about $14 million worldwide. 

Rebekah (Liu) and her husband Chris (Sullivan) are shifting into a brand new home with their youngsters Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang). Completely happy of their new dwelling, they’re unaware of a watchful presence, who was there earlier than they arrived. Quickly, Chloe, who offers with mental-health points and grieving the demise of her greatest buddy Nadia from an overdose, begins to sense it — even when nobody else in her household believes her.

The movie’s opening shot pronounces the story’s nifty conceit. Soderbergh, serving because the digicam operator and dealing as his personal cinematographer (below his common pseudonym Peter Andrews), glides via the home because the unseen spectral being, silently observing the motion. Every scene is a single take, chopping to black earlier than we transfer on to the subsequent. Horror films have usually included the eerie POV of the killer however right here the ghost turns into an enigmatic character, its motives a teasing thriller all through.

Because the viewers tries to infer if the presence is pleasant or malicious, the director (working from a script by David Koepp) additionally includes us within the drama throughout the household. We solely see snippets of a fuller story — primarily, solely what the presence learns — however what turns into obvious is that pushed workaholic Rebekah has performed one thing unethical in her high-powered job, though she assures her involved husband that all the things can be superb. (Sullivan’s big-teddy-bear sensitivity suggests he’s much less positive than she is.)

Rebekah, in the meantime, adores Tyler, an boastful champion swimmer seemingly destined for excellent issues, however is rising exasperated with what she perceives as Chloe’s lack of ability to deal with life. Chris feels protecting of their daughter — partially due to how a lot his spouse favours Tyler, who constantly mocks Chloe for being tender — and as soon as Chloe begins sensing the presence, the extra her expertise exacerbates a friction between members of the family.

Relying on one’s emotions towards Soderbergh’s low-key initiatives, Presence may be seen as both an gratifying experiment or one other instance of his insubstantial minor doodles. Fortunately, it’s largely the previous: working 85 minutes, the movie proves to be a smooth, environment friendly train, with Soderbergh riffing on the conventions of the haunted-house thriller whereas making use of intelligence and technical mastery. Notably, the image echoes the Paranormal Exercise sequence in its use of an unblinking eye that quietly captures all the things, leaving the viewers anxious about when the frights may happen. The distinction, after all, is that franchise utilised unfeeling surveillance cameras — Presence’s subjective digicam provides one other layer of chic unease. What’s the presence pondering? When will it begin to work together with this household?

The grownup leads each shine, particularly Sullivan as a caring father who sees a fellow candy soul in his daugher, however it’s Chloe who ultimately turns into Presence’s central determine. For causes she can’t clarify, Chloe turns into satisfied that the unseen spectre is Nadia and, via some artful, elemental results work, the ghost begins to make its presence felt.

A number of the later revelations concerning what’s going on are a bit underwhelming, however Liang expertly conveys her fragile character’s anguish that maybe her useless buddy desires to speak from the nice past. We watch Presence from the ghost’s perspective, however we ultimately additionally see it via Chloe’s — a scared younger lady who’s not sure if the risks are in the home or in her head.