Directed by Steven Soderbergh | Written by David Koepp | 85 min | ▲▲▲ | Amazon Prime
A version of this review appeared on FITI during the Atlantic International Film Festival in September 2024
It’s an odd coincidence that two movies coming out this season tell their stories through the first person perspective of a character, where the camera looks through a character’s eyes. They use the approach to a very different effect: One is Nickel Boys, and the other is Presence. 
This is Steven Soderbergh’s first step into horror since Unsane. Soderbergh is one of Hollywood’s most restless and prolific filmmakers with a real talent for genre. Consider the range of the following films, his most recent: Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Kimi, No Sudden Move, and Let Them All Talk.
Where I struggle a little with him is when he gets too interested in form — at times he seems more curious about how a technical, conceptual element of his movie will work rather than a specific care for characters, even when he teams up with his occasional collaborator, the terrific screenwriter David Koepp.
Here the concept is clear as crystal: this is a ghost story and we’re witnessing the family from the ghost’s perspective in a single location. The Payne family moves into a lovely American home — parents (Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan) and teens Chloe (Callina Liang) and Tyler (Eddy Maday). Right off the top the camera is prowling, intrusive, observing them with a wide angle similar to the one Soderbergh used occasionally in No Sudden Move.
If you can get over the distorted lens and the swooping handheld camera — not my favourite — the picture is plenty engaging. Chloe swiftly becomes the heart of the story as she’s struggling to adjust to the death of a close friend, and is (at first) the only one in the family who’s sensitive to the ghost.
What emerges is the various family members’ issues — Mom is in some legal trouble, Dad knows about it but doesn’t want to be implicated and is thinking about leaving the relationship, Tyler is an asshole only interested in being popular and has no compassion for his sister’s problems. This while the ghost’s motivations continue to be oblique and unpredictable.
Watching events unfold via the perspective of a spectre haunting this troubled family is regularly chilling, but I’m not sure it doesn’t undercut some of the scares you might get in a more traditional supernatural thriller. As an audience we’re not in danger of being victimized, we’re passive passengers wondering what our “presence” is going to do next.
Anyone expecting a modern Poltergeist will be disappointed. The notes of horror are present, but while the journey to a better understanding of what’s going on here — what will give the ghost some measure of peace — is plenty involving, the conclusion is a bit of a letdown. Soderbergh’s concept and execution is, as usual, worth seeing even if it doesn’t quite deliver something truly shocking.
