Presence

Steven Soderbergh approaches every category of movie with playful rigour and an encyclopedic knowledge of film, but the prolific Academy Award–winning director’s take on horror may be his most wondrous feat of genre reinvention yet. Written by superstar screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park), Presence shakes the ghost story to life by embracing death. Told from the point of view of a housebound spirit, the film makes a spectre of the spectator, granting us singular access to a family passing through troubled times.

Following a hypnotic prologue in which the camera glides weightlessly through an unfurnished house, we are introduced to a realtor (Julia Fox) showing the premises to married couple Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) and their kids, Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang). The family moves in, but their occupancy fails to infuse the home with warmth. Rather, a litany of problems are revealed: Rebekah is in trouble at work, Chloe is grieving a friend who recently died of an overdose, and Tyler’s buddy Ryan (West Mulholland) becomes a fixture in the household, though his influence on Chloe proves fraught. All the while, the ghost bears witness and strategizes methods of hair-raising intervention, prompting Chris to summon a spiritualist.

An air of melancholy permeates Presence, while its innovative narrative style generates a steady thrum of anxiety and tension. With its floating, voyeuristic viewpoint recalling such classics as Robert Wise’s The Haunting, the film pivots between the familiar and the startlingly new, mirroring the feeling of living in the present while the past comes back to haunt you.

ROBYN CITIZEN