Presence review: Soderbergh's unique, creepy and moving ghost story will give you goosebumps

Steven Soderbergh’s latest is a haunted house story told from the ghost’s point of view.

Or rather, seen through the ghost’s POV; the director filmed the entire thing on a handheld camera himself which means we only see the things play out from the perspective of the Presence.

Now before going into the film, I was worried that this style would ruin the horror: after all, how can you be scared of what’s coming if you are what’s coming. But it turns out this isn’t a horror film, not really. It’s a mystery, a family drama, a supernatural nouveau-Poe tale.

The results are a film that’s certainly creepy but also moving, and the two come together in a twist that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end (quick shout-out to David Lynch, whose ‘monster’ behind the diner in Mulholland Drive was the last shock to produce this effect, along with a bit of a jaw drop).

At the start of the film, we as the Presence wander around an empty home in what looks from the windows to be a nice suburban American town.

We are interrupted by the arrival of Julia Fox – yes, that one – an estate agent. She lets in a family: Rebekah (Lucy Liu), Chris (Chris Sullivan), Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang). The presence is immediately drawn to Chloe, and she briefly seems to register it.

We then start cutting forward, as if the presence is manifesting at different times. Like in a reality TV show it follows the family around the house, spying on their activities and conversations. We begin to realise all is not well with this family.

Rebekah is in some kind of legal trouble with her work and drinking heavily. Chris is falling apart while trying to keep things together, and drinking heavily. Tyler is a bone-headed jock falling in with a bunch of toxic friends.

And Chloe is grieving, as her best friend Nadia recently died. Often alone in her room, she is isolated from her family with only her Dad reaching out, and one of Chris’ new friends, Ryan (West Mulholland), providing a shoulder to cry on.

Without giving away any spoilers to what is a carefully balanced mystery, we are very much a presence which is looking over Chloe.

This ghost is a protective one, not a malevolent force, although should anyone cross Chloe…

The effect of the audience being the presence is to share in this guardianship of Chloe. We completely identify with the teenager in the room nursing hurt, and wander away around the house to hear how the other members of the family talk about her, and put her down or dismiss her concerns. Rebekah is too obsessed with Tyler’s success, and her own problems, to deal with her daughter.

At times, seeing these little betrayals, the presence takes us careering around the house, enraged. It is capable of moving objects and in these moments the film is a breathless experience, like one of those dreams where you can fly but don’t have control.

Soderbergh’s best work (Sex, Lies and Videotape, Out of Sight, The Limey) has him create singular stylistic wonders while fulfilling audience demands for thrills and spills. Presence is a little gem that is up there with his best.

While some of the family characterisation feels a little heavily drawn by screenwriter David ‘Jurassic Park’ Koepp – a little too much gloss on the warm dad and the cold mum – the performances carry it through, with Liang particularly effective as the girl spiralling into trouble without realising it: when she leaves the room, we stay to watch what others do behind her back.

And really, the unique perspective of the film is the star. When a woman with ‘second sight’ pays a visit to check out the mysterious goings-on, she immediately looks directly into the camera, and can’t take her eyes off ‘us’.

While breaking the fourth wall is fairly commonplace these days, here it is deeply unnerving, bringing the vulnerable sensation of suddenly being exposed. Film characters shouldn’t ‘see’ us! We’re the invisible audience, ghosts willing things to happen.

It is a lovely playing with our desires and expectations and our cosy roles sat in the dark. But that is secondary. The story comes first, and this POV technique is used to pull of the twist so elegantly and effectively, that even if you guess it, those goosebumps will be popping.

See it on the big screen for maximum effect.

Presence is in cinemas from 24th January