Presence Review: A Family Haunted by Regret

Presence lures you in with an enticing haunted house premise before artfully dissecting the constructs of the modern nuclear family.

The film opens up on a realtor running late to show an empty house to a family. Before she opens the doors to the family, she hastily tries to prepare the house. She throws away water bottles that had been left on the counter, indicating this is a house she’s been trying to sell off for quite some time. When the family arrives, the father, Chris (Chris Sullivan, of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), inquires about the house as the mother, Rebekah (Lucy Liu, of Red One), only engages in conversation between sending off text messages. Their son Tyler (Eddy Maday) has no interest in the house at all, while his younger sister Chloe (Callina Liang, of Bad Genius) quietly explores. The story unfolds through the eyes of an unknown presence that is trapped in the house. The presence itself is skittish, unsure of itself and why it is there. It sees the family as a foreign entity and is trying to understand it while being innately drawn to Chloe.

Chloe has been going through a rough time. Her best friend Nadia unexpectedly passed away in her sleep, the second girl in her area to do so within the past two months. Chris confesses to Rebekah he’s nervous the move might be too much for Chloe considering how recently her best friend has passed. Rebekah doesn’t thoughtfully consider this worry at all, saying the family needs to make this move so the kids can switch schools and Tyler can join the new school’s swim team, which is much more highly regarded. It becomes immediately apparent that Rebekah often doesn’t consider Chloe and only acts in Tyler’s best interest, with her husband frequently needing to remind her she has two children to think about.

Tyler immediately aligns himself with the cool crowd at his and Chloe’s new school, specifically befriending the most popular kid, named Ryan (West Mulholland, of Little Fires Everywhere). He sees his sister as a type of burden, frequently not engaging in her life and painting her trauma as a nuisance to the family. However, when Ryan comes over to the house, he is drawn to Chloe and the two develop a deep connection. He reveals to her his relationship with his mother is extremely tumultuous and he feels powerless and alone because of it. Chloe sympathizes with him, saying that ever since Nadia died she has felt like part of her died with her and now she feels stuck in a dark and unforgiving place. 

Ever since they moved in, the presence has closely followed Chloe. While we cannot see the presence itself, it’s made clear it feels connected and moved by Chloe’s struggles and vulnerability. It playfully tries to make itself known to her in times where it feels she might need someone and attempts to protect her when her mother and brother are being unkind to her. While Chloe is the first one to notice it, it slowly reveals itself, and its power, to the rest of the family.

While Presence will be sold to audiences as a horror film, writing it off as just another scary movie would do a disservice to its power. The presence itself is unsettling and the film is able to get audiences’ hearts racing, but for the majority of the movie, it is simply observing the inner workings of this family’s dynamic. There are so many compelling plotlines about the way we deal with grief at a young age, the damage a parent’s favoritism can have on a family and the importance of correcting your children’s bad behavior before it turns them into bad people. 

The subjective camera is able to capture truly meaningful, life changing moments that are happening for this family in such a masterful way. It makes the film as a whole feel effortlessly organic and natural, which is ironic given it centers around the supernatural. It’s evident that Soderbergh knows his audience is smart and therefore doesn’t pander to them by overexplaining every aspect of the family’s innerworking. The way the film is framed is subtle and understated, giving audiences the puzzle pieces to put together themselves without having to blatantly spell out the deeper themes of the movie. 

Ultimately, Presence is a film about guilt. Chris feels like he’s not present enough for his daughter or able to correct the ways in which his son has become a truly cruel person, Chloe feels like she could have done something more for Nadia while she was alive, Rebekah is coming to terms with how always putting her son first has damaged her entire family, and the presence seems like it is seeking to right something that went horribly wrong. Early on in the movie, Rebekah tells her son that if you make a mistake for the right reason, you will be able to live with yourself, and the rest of the film seems to be an exploration of that sentiment and a test of its validity. 

Presence joins the ranks of horror films that are truly changing the way people see the genre. While horror elements are being used as the vehicle to set the tone of the piece and drive the story forward, Soderbergh has tapped into something far more profound that exists in the genre but is difficult to manifest. The haunting in this family home is multifaceted. Beyond the house’s supernatural entity, this family is haunted by their deepest regrets. Presence is not a strictly scary film, but an artful commentary on how regret haunts us and the many ways in which our regrets can manifest into something that cannot be ignored. 

Presence will be released in US theaters and in UK & Irish cinemas on January 24, 2025.