Spoilers below.
Norman: Alrighty, Tyler. You and I have been fans of Steven Soderbergh for a long time. This guy can do seemingly anything he wants. Would you like an entertaining flick about a male stripper? He’s got you covered. Would you like a remake of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris? Again, he’s got you. A few Ocean’s movies, some flicks with Sasha Grey and Gina Carano, but also George Clooney might be involved. So, when I heard that he had made a horror movie, I didn’t really need any more information to get me to the theater. But Soderbergh, for all his variety, makes films that sometimes feel more like little experiments than fully fleshed out movies. What do we have with Presence? Is this a horror movie for the ages? A little interesting flick? A failed experiment?
Tyler: It is an experiment, but far from a failed one. Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp imbue Presence with relatable humanity. The family at the center of the movie combats familiar problems, be they toxic sibling relationships, drowning marriages—we’ve even got some indeterminate white-collar crime! Plenty of much lesser movies would make a hash of all this, but here the familial dynamics give the narrative the heart it needs to succeed as a thriller.
And it is a thriller, isn’t it? I had horror in mind going into the screening as well, but Presence’s disturbing elements are far more psychological than gruesome. As the heavy notes, the most dangerous thing in the room at the climax is a stretch of plastic wrap. And hell, we don’t see a single death onscreen. What kind of horror is this?
In seriousness, this is a damn impressive exercise that transcends technical whizbangery. The camera might be first-person and the person might be a ghost, but there’s an emotional core here that pushes the film beyond the boundaries of mere experimentation.
Norman: I knew literally nothing about the movie when I walked in. What struck me about it was the architecture! I didn’t fully understand what the camera’s perspective was supposed to be, but I felt like I was in the middle of one of those 3D drone tours that some real estate agents do, and I liked it! So many movies don’t give you a clear sense of place, but I could probably have drawn a crude floor plan of this house in the first 20 minutes. It didn’t take me long to get sold on the premise and limitations of the movie, because I truly love it when directors place specific limits on themselves and then do something fantastic within those limits.
Tyler: I was livid that an NPR headline spoiled the conceit of the ghostly camera perspective.
Norman: I would have been upset, too. It was fun to discover it in real time and then to begin the process of wondering what this ghost thought of all it was seeing. For most of the movie the “presence” is quite passive, so we are left to make our own judgements. This was also a pleasant surprise. I felt locked in the entire time.
Tyler: Major help that the film doesn’t overstay its welcome. A nice tidy 85 minutes.
Norman: Yes, I read a review in The Atlantic that pined for a longer movie, but I agree with you. Stretching this too far would risk losing some of the mystery and intrigue. This is long enough to give you the chills but not so long that you get bored or for the movie to force things too much.
Tyler: The perspective might’ve become trying. I love the Bogart/Bacall classic Dark Passage, a picture that spends half its runtime shot from Bogie’s point of view It’s only half, though, and I reckon that those filmmakers, like Soderbergh and Co., knew that there is such a thing as too much.
An observation I’d make about those chills is that all the ugliness in Presence comes from its human characters, some of whom at least border on despicable.
Norman: Agreed. This movie works, because it is a family drama at its core. If it were all about how a ghost pushes people around, it would be one of the many horror films released each year by A24 for the kids. But Presence explores grief, strained marriage, sibling contention, and some psychotic behavior with an intimacy rarely seen on film.
Tyler: Nothing is oversold, either. We’re allowed to observe, to draw our own conclusions, to grow fond of, or sour on, the characters. I know I developed some rooting interests, but who’s to say a different viewer wouldn’t disagree entirely?
Norman: Exactly. You feel like a fly on the wall or the ghost in the hall. This is basically an inverted episode of Unsolved Mysteries!
I did have one small annoyance with the plotting of the movie. Readers beware. After the presence rampages through Tyler’s room, the family realizes that Chloe’s claims are true, and they begin to wonder how they’ll live in the house with a ghost. But then, without much explanation, they all just seem to decide that they are cool with this, whatever it is. I wish that would have been developed a bit more.
Tyler: Maybe that’s part of the point. The characters who initially oppose reentering the house are both so wrapped up in their own work and school sagas that living with a ghost is small potatoes.
Norman: I’m okay with that explanation, but those are tense decisions. For me, even some small scene where we see how or why those decisions are made would have been helpful. This was one small area where the choice to avoid all expository content and explanation seemed taken too far. This is a small complaint.
Tyler: The choice to make the family a blended one—Asian-American Lucy Liu plays matriarch Rebecca, married to white Andrew Whitworth doppleganger Chris—makes me wonder about intended subtext. Horror films, suspense thrillers, are often the most political of motion pictures.
Norman: Lucy Liu does play a sort of modern stereotype of the Asian mom – cold, work-obsessed, given to blatant favoritism.
If this movie is political, what is the message? Or is it not that simple?
Tyler: Well, the bad guy is especially white, rather pale. He preys upon Chloe, and previously murdered who might be the ghost: a teenage girl with the ever-so-exotic name Nadia. Caucasian imperialism and brutality?
One thing Presence makes clear is that privilege will not save you.
Norman: I kept thinking about how clean and beautifully decorated the house was. I live in a smaller house with two young children. Our house will never look as nice as theirs. I am often annoyed. But the family’s status is almost an impediment to any potential joy they might have.
Tyler: The marriage is a pretty rough one. The son can’t stand the daughter, as the daughter knows the son is a full-on brat. These people are suffocating.
Norman: In this family, you really have to hide out in your room by yourself. Your immaculately curated room.
Tyler: What a movie! Man, it’s a fine thing to see a working master like Soderbergh deliver a good one.
Norman: I have to give props to the set design team here. Every detail tells you a bit more about the family and each of its characters.
But, yes, this movie is great. It’ll probably fly under the radar, because it has a very unique storytelling style and it requires a little something from the viewer, but this is a wonderful entry in an already wonderful filmography.
Tyler: I just saw that it scored a paltry C+ on audience gauge CinemaScore.
Norman: Fuck whatever audience rated it.
They deserve to be forced to watch 3 hours of Paw Patrol if they can’t handle Presence.
Writers' Loom 