Film Overview: Steven Soderbergh’s eerie haunted home drama ‘Presence’ packs a punch | Hollywood

Usually in haunted home films the place a brand new household strikes in and begins sensing unusual issues, the ghost is aware of precisely what they need — often their home again. On this one, the presence doesn’t have such a transparent goal. It’s extra confused, wandering round and investigating the environment, like a benevolent amnesiac. Sometimes, although, large feelings erupt, and issues shake violently.

Principally, they go unnoticed. They observe the chipper actual property agent making ready for a exhibiting, the portray crew, considered one of whom believes there’s one thing round, and eventually the household and all of the complexities of its dynamics. Lucy Liu is the mother, Rebecca, a rich, profitable, type-A girl hyper targeted on the success of her eldest, a teenage boy named Tyler . The daddy, Chris , is extra of the nurturer, involved about their teen daughter Chloe within the aftermath of her buddy’s sudden demise.

There’s a household drama transpiring inside the home, solely a few of which is able to make sense ultimately. We overhear Rebecca drunkenly telling Tyler that the whole lot she does is for him. We pay attention in as Chris confides to somebody on the cellphone a couple of hypothetical companion being concerned in one thing unlawful and whether or not they nonetheless could be if legally separated. We see Tyler usually together with his head buried in his cellphone. After which there’s Chloe: Unhappy, rebellious Chloe, who’s the one one to note that they’re not alone. She’s had the current trauma, in spite of everything, and shortly she’s beginning a factor with Tyler’s floppy haired, cool man buddy Ryan . They hook up, they drink, they do medication, and Chloe will get to flee from her personal ideas — not less than for a short time. Ryan appears to be like straight out of a mid-90s film, he is an indignant, aggrieved child who assures Chloe that she has the facility to determine how this all goes.

“Presence” was written by David Koepp off of some pages Soderbergh put collectively, imagining what it might be prefer to be the ghost. He’s that too, technically, as each director and cinematographer on the undertaking. It’s a slow-burn expertise that sneaks up on you, particularly when you’ve seen the way it performs out. Personally, I didn’t see any of it coming and couldn’t have anticipated the emotional wallop it might pack ultimately. It’s a heady experiment that transcends the considerably gimmicky-on-paper premise — one thing Soderbergh manages to do alarmingly effectively and recurrently.

January releases aren’t usually probably the most compelling. Except for the annual rollout of awards contenders, it’s most of the time a dumping floor. “Presence” is a film that I first noticed final January on the Sundance Movie Pageant, and but, even after a 12 months, the chilliness and the admiration has stubbornly lingered in my thoughts, like a ghost that simply received’t go away, whereas so many different movies have merely light from reminiscence. It’s a uncommon gem within the January combine.

“Presence,” a Neon launch in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Movement Image Affiliation for “teen consuming, drug materials, sexuality, language, violence.” Operating time: 85 minutes. Three stars out of 4.

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