There is no doubt that Steven Soderbergh is one of the most high-clout directors working today. Directing one of the great ensemble trilogies in his Oceans films. He is also known for his ingenuity, most prominently his films which he shot on an iPhone, such as High Flying Bird and Unsane. With Presence, Soderbergh is maximising his creative output again in a film that the definition of the haunted house.
Whilst the film has been marketed as a horror, using phrases such as terrifying and haunting to project itself as a film full of scares. Even the score highlights its horror aspects. However, Soderbergh’s opening shot suggests an entirely different proposition. A floating camera shot around the house that lasts for about a minute or so. It highlights the geography of the hollow and vacant house, almost feeling like a Terrance Malick film in its dreamy and ethereal style. It is as if the house is its own character.
Entering the house is a family of four, led by Lucy Liu. However, the lead performance is Callina Liang who plays the daughter. In this first encounter Soderbergh sets it up like a conventional horror film. The house is not even on the market, it’s the only one in the area, which they need to move into to aid the son’s career in swimming. Meanwhile, the daughter, Chloe, played by Liang, is suffering from the loss of her best friend from a drug overdose, and when she feels a ghostly presence in the house, she thinks that this is her friend, Nadia.
Whilst the trailers may deceive, Soderbergh’s unique and intense visual style is completely gripping and compelling. It has an almost Nickel Boys-esque point of view style cinematography, with each beat of the story told in one take, intersected with long drawn out fades to black. This gives the film an aesthetic that keeps you inquiring with how the film is playing with genre, and more importantly how it is going to play out in the very short 85 minute runtime.
However, disappointingly, it does feel a little style over substance. The characters are very surface level. Chloe is this lonely, grief-stricken girl whose grief feels isolated. We can’t really understand exactly what she is going through, whilst the script uses the horror trope of her losing her mind, to not great effect. Likewise, her brother, Tyler, is the stereotypical jock, and his mum’s golden child. Meanwhile, the father is the one holding the family together. But this foundation has never progressed upon. With such a great premise, it is only the visuals that add to this, rather than anything the narrative is doing. But the style is just about engaging enough to hold the film together. Especially with a gripping final act that brings everything together into a neat and intriguing bow.
Soderbergh’s thought experiment is in some compartments shoddily executed. A thin script that feels scared to go beneath the surface, some poor acting at. Times, and fades to black that feel a little too clunky and distracting at times. However, its compelling visual style is gripping, engaging and compelling, drawing on the works of Terrance Mallick, David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, and most recently Nickel Boys. All bringing together a fascinating flip of the haunted house.
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