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Steven Soderbergh has never been a filmmaker who sticks so closely with one genre or style of filmmaking. But he’s always been one of the most exciting filmmakers working in the United States because of how he adapts to working on a smaller scale versus the major studio system where he’s found his biggest commercial successes. Lately, it seems as if he’s found another sort of groove in making genre exercises in collaboration with David Koepp in order to deconstruct what we once thought as possible within the confines of said genre. It takes Presence to interesting places, even though I don’t know if it’s always successful.

This film starts off fittingly enough with very off-kilter camerawork, shot by Steven Soderbergh himself under one of his usual pseudonyms, Peter Andrews. But in that moment, we’re also seeing a realtor (Julia Fox) selling an empty house to the married couple Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) and their kids Chloe (Callina Liang) and Tyler (Eddy Maday). After the family moves in, it becomes clear that they aren’t alone in that house – for Chloe’s grieving for a late friend causes her to believe that she may be haunting the house. It becomes clear with such a distinct approach to shooting this work that Soderbergh is working through the point of view of that presence in order to catch the viewers at their most vulnerable.

While Presence tries to present itself as a domestic drama under the guise of a haunted house thriller, it becomes clear where Soderbergh’s best instincts as a director lie. He’s always been a great director when it comes to directing his actors, as his work with ensemble pieces would show. But he’s also able to bring out great work from Lucy Liu as a troubled mother trying to do her best for her mostly indifferent children. Yet the real star of the film is evident in Callina Liang, playing a young girl trying to comprehend the circumstances that would have led to a close friend disappearing so suddenly.

Though the approach to telling the story of a ghost haunting a home might prove exciting with the point of view work, it’s also where the greatest weaknesses of Presence lie. Soderbergh is trying the best that he can with a very weak script that settles for playing out in the most derivative manner. It ends up counteracting the more inventive aspects of Soderbergh’s own filmmaking, eventually showing that POV technique as being nothing more than a mere gimmick that grows stale as the film goes on. Soderbergh toys around with the idea that the presence could try its best to communicate through this invasive point of view, but even this off-kilter cinematography never goes beyond feeling voyeuristic.

Most disappointingly, it seems like this vague approach to telling the story of a dysfunctional family being haunted by a ghost never particularly seems to go anywhere interesting. The familiar genre trappings are felt from beginning to end, even coming down to these films being about “trauma,” then not really saying much beyond that. But as the tension racks up in this setting, as it fittingly would for any great haunted house movie, it seems like Soderbergh is trying to do too much with so little time. It only makes what would fundamentally seem like the most exciting moment of these films feel conceited, because it ultimately feels like a very predictable turn of events.

There’s a whole lot one can be excited by from an elevator pitch for Presence: a haunted house movie from a ghost’s point of view directed by Steven Soderbergh would already incite interest. Yet I’m not particularly sure what else can he offer, especially if his own reach within this story seems so limited to one simple trick. Worst, it seems to undercut the talent of his own stars, who are giving Presence everything that they can. But as this camera observes a family trying to make do with situating in a haunted house, it oddly feels absent and creates a greater distance between character and the viewer.  

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Watch the trailer right here.

All images via NEON.

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Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Screenplay by David Koepp
Produced by Julie M. Anderson, Ken Meyer
Starring Lucy Liu, Callina Liang, Julia Fox, Chris Sullivan, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland
Premiere Date: January 19, 2024 (Sundance)
Running Time: 85 minutes

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