By Sandra Hall
PRESENCE ★★★★
(MA15+) 83 minutes
Steven Soderbergh’s Presence injects new life into that hoary old contrivance, the haunted house mystery. It pairs the supernatural with a thoroughly modern theme – social media’s propensity for encouraging teenage bullies to do their worst.
Chloe (Callina Liang) is still grieving over the unexplained death of best friend in Presence.
It’s written by David Koepp, who is as adaptable as Soderbergh, having moved smoothly between three Jurassic Park movies, plus a series of other blockbusters, and more quietly cerebral efforts such as Ron Howard’s 1994 newsroom comedy The Paper. This is only the second film he and Soderbergh have made together, and they make you work for every revelation, feeding out small scraps of exposition while inviting you to absorb the creepiness of the atmosphere they’re creating.
In the pre-credits sequence, we’re shown around the house in question by the camera. It prowls through empty rooms like some sort of robotic real estate agent touting its sale. And when it is sold, it’s soon clear the new residents are troubled enough without the extra burden of having a ghost in the house.
Teenage siblings Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang) give every sign of detesting each other, while Chloe is so depressed she can barely bring herself to speak to anyone.
Callina Liang (left), Chris Sullivan, Eddy Maday, Lucy Liu and Julia Fox in Presence.
A few cryptic allusions gradually lead us to the reasons for this. She’s still grieving over the so far unexplained death of her best friend. And her parents, Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan), can’t agree what to do about it. Chris thinks she needs a therapist while Rebekah, whose favourite child is the equally hard-headed Tyler, believes she’ll eventually get over it without them having to do anything.
All the action is contained inside the house and Soderbergh deliberately keeps us at arm’s length. The camera dictates our perspective as it peers at each member of the household through doorways or wanders up and down the stairs. And after the whole family witnesses a couple of showy examples of telekinesis, they begin to share our view they’re living with some sort of invisible being.
While this has been going on, Chloe has found one source of comfort. Tyler’s best friend, Ryan (West Mulholland), is attracted to her and she’s responded, but once social media enters the picture, the warning bells start sounding.
It’s Tyler who sets them off, crowing over the success of an online prank that has thoroughly humiliated one of their classmates while Ryan sits by, looking smug.
I admit to a prejudice against ghost stories. More often than not, they belong to the cinema of cheap thrills, but here, the evil resides in the natural world rather than the paranormal, and there’s nothing cheap about any of the shocks. They’re well-earned. It’s a highly controlled piece of filmmaking and the climax is incredibly scary. I can’t say it has me believing in ghosts, but it does put the case with a disarming sophistication
Presence is released in cinemas on February 6.
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