Presence |Dir: Steven Soderbergh | ★ ★ ★ ★
Presence follows the intimate and uncomfortable moments of a modern family once they move into a century-old house that is meant to be the solution to all their problems, with the 11-day shoot of the entire film taking place inside the house.
The mother’s (Lucy Liu) favouritism for the older son Tyler (Eddy Maday) is established when they choose to live in the house because of the location of Tyler’s schooling. The emotionally neglected daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) has just suffered the loss of two close friends and when her family fails to protect her, it leaves room for the presence to reach her.
Director Soderbergh said “Presence grew out of something that happened in the house I own”. After rumours of a previous death inside his home, a house sitter reporting that they “felt some sort of presence … and saw the figure of a woman cross the end of the hallway into the bedroom”.
The disturbing film pushes the boundaries of storytelling through its unique perspective, with everything being from the point of view of the presence whose motivation remains hidden until the end. Through a series of long shots, the audience feels like it is spying on this dysfunctional family from a distance.
Sometimes the presence comes close to the characters and sometimes Chloe can just sense it. The audience is not shown the form of the presence, but the point of view allows us to understand things about the presence by the way it moves or stands still and watches.
The presence doesn’t actually haunt the family but divides loyalties as to whether it exists.
The mother and son deny its existence, while the father (Chris Sullivan) wants to get rid of it and Chloe feels comforted by it.
There are no big scares in this slow-burning film but the unique perspective creates an unnerving supernatural story.
Alex Lippiatt
