#TIFF24 Review: Presence (Centrepiece)

By John Corrado

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

The latest vaguely experimental thriller from director Steven Soderbergh, following his self-imposed “retirement” from filmmaking, Presence is a haunted house movie shown from the perspective of the ghost. And it’s a neat enough parlour trick, even if the film itself is uneven.

Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) have moved into a new home in a nice neighbourhood, that is in a good school district for their teenage kids Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang), who has become somewhat withdrawn following the death of her close friend. Because of this, her father is obsessed with putting her through therapy, while the mother fawns over her prized son as if they only have one child.

But it turns out that the house their realtor (Julia Fox) sold to them is inhabited by an all-seeing spectre, who constantly watches the family. Peter Andrews offers some cool cinematography, as the handheld camera floats through the house in a series of long takes, observing the characters and listening in on their conversations. The film also offers some decent uses of practical effects, as objects move on their own or crash and fall off shelves.

Showing a haunting from the perspective of the ghost is a pretty cool if admittedly gimmicky concept for a haunted house movie, and Soderbergh does do an okay job of pulling it off on a technical level. But the bland, one-note characters in David Koepp’s screenplay are sort of irritating, and the performances are uneven. The often amateur acting isn’t helped by the fact that the film requires long takes without much room for editing. Many of the story beats themselves are predictable and can feel straight out of a teen melodrama, including a twist that is further undercut by poor dialogue during the reveal.

The film itself intentionally calls to mind David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, but lacks the necessary artistry or poignancy of an exercise like that one to leave more of an impact. Soderbergh’s typically detached style makes it feel a bit cold, adding an unpleasant air of pretension to something that can otherwise feel like a mediocre direct-to-VOD found footage horror movie.

Film Rating: ★★ (out of 4)