When the Payne family move home they slowly begin to feel a presence within their home. Is this poltergeist real? And if so is it a good or bad spirit? 

Let’s make something clear right from the start. Presence is not a horror movie. Anyone looking for their next supernatural spooky hit is not going to find it here. Presence is a ghost story told from the perspective of the ghost. Trapped within the confines of its large suburban home it drifts around learning about the Payne family and the rifts that grow between them. 

Rebekah (Lucy Liu) is the matriarch of the family who makes all the decisions. Despite having two teenage children her sole focus is on her beloved son Tyler (Eddy Maday). Tyler is a selfish and single minded athlete. The typical jock who thinks his world view is the right one. His sister Chloe (Callina Liang) has recently suffered a severe loss. Her best friend Nadia died suddenly and she is still grieving. The husband and father Chris (Christine Sullivan) meanwhile finds himself trying to keep the peace as he realises his wife is committing financial fraud to fund their lifestyle, his son is a bully and his daughter is falling apart. 

Visually the film portrays the camera as the presence. Shot in long takes as a point of view of what it sees and hears. Never able to leave the home it only knows what happens inside the house, returning to its safe space which happens to be Chloe’s closet. At various points the presence tries to intervene and make itself known to varying degrees and we try to understand its intentions. 

The result is sedate but intriguing. At only 84 minutes it still struggles to maintain momentum and keep the viewer engaged. But the ending is incredibly well realised as it wraps up all the questions that have been floating around in your mind. 

This is the first of two films this year from writer David Koepp and director Steven Soderbergh. They previously joined forces to produce Kimi which also fell into the intriguing but not riveting category. Next up will be spy thriller Black Bag where hopefully they can inject some impetus into their intriguing 90 minute films.