Presence 2025 Movie Review
This was pretty much what I expected a Soderbergh ‘horror movie’ would be, in that it’s more of a subtle, intimate, slow-burn mystery-suspense tale and a dark-ish family drama, albeit one witnessed by a ghost (despite at least one audience member at the TIFF Q&A inexplicably believing he saw a ‘regular movie’ intercut with the ghost’s POV, the whole movie is 100% from the perspective of the ghost, who can’t leave the house so neither do we). The camera IS the ghost (which is reasonably evident in the trailers promoting the film). Soderbergh and Koepp drop small hints about an originating trauma that (mostly) pertains to the daughter (Callina Liang) who’s having trouble adjusting and is quietly rebelling, and they plant other clues about simmering dysfunction that the family isn’t fully dealing with in light of her behaviour.
In a way, the ghost (and by association, the audience) sees the blind spots that the characters have and gradually takes a more active role. The camera/ghost conceit is probably not new (I assume?), but Soderbergh’s shot choices and movements throughout the house nicely suggest that the ghost itself is undergoing something of a learning curve before making itself known (which makes sense when one suspects how long this particular ghost has been a ghost).
I’m not sure this is top-tier Soderbergh, but it’s really engrossing as its little mysteries unfold, and as I said it’s pretty much what I expected a ghost story from him would be like: smart, visually elegant, increasingly ominous, and thankfully never resorting to a single cheap jump scare or shrieking music sting, which is something in itself nowadays.
