Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A couple and their children move into a seemingly normal suburban home. When strange events occur, they begin to believe there is something else in the house with them. The presence is about to disrupt their lives in unimaginable ways.
Steven Soderbergh's 'Presence' is a formally audacious haunted-house film shot entirely from the ghost's first-person POV, making it cinematographically distinctive and highly novel — the single unbroken perspective as a narrative and emotional device is genuinely singular in the genre. The acting is solid, with a capable ensemble navigating the unusual shooting constraints convincingly. The plot, while serviceable, leans on familiar suburban dysfunction and haunted-house beats, elevated mainly by the formal conceit rather than story originality. The ending, however, feels undercooked and somewhat anticlimactic given the tension built — it resolves in a way that disappoints relative to the film's ambitious setup.