Presence

"Presence is a film by director Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies, and Videotape) in an experimental phase that recalls his early filmography. Essentially, this is a ghost story, where a family struggles with difficulties and traumas, beginning to believe that their new home is haunted. What’s interesting is that the entire film is shot from the first-person perspective of the ghost or presence itself, whose identity we don’t know (although we assume it) for almost the entire movie. From this unique character/camera/audience viewpoint as observer, the film gradually develops the details of the family drama: the daughter’s past, tensions between the parents, the brother, and the friends. The narrative itself isn’t complex: the film tells a surprisingly simple story that relies on its gradual revelations to maintain interest, oscillating between horror and thriller. It’s a formal exercise that, at times, seems more interesting to Soderbergh himself than to the audience, but the camera’s perspective works to build tension and create an aura of intrigue and danger. It doesn’t reach the heights of Personal Shopper by Olivier Assayas – whose mystery is much more captivating without so much formal experimentation – but if you’re open to a supernatural story told in a very different way than usual, it will certainly be, at least, interesting."