Steven Soderbergh's new film PRESENCE is a fascinating experiment.
More "This Is Us" than "Poltergeist" it's certainly got a unique point of view.
Starting with its dizzying opening sequence, our point of view is that of the specter that occupies a newly sold house.
Our view glides through every room of the home, finally sliding to a window to watch a realtor arrive and welcome a family to the empty property.
Rebekah (Lucy Liu) is clearly driving their immediate decision to buy, over riding the seemingly logical questions from her husband Chris (Chris Sullivan). Their two children, confident jock Tyler (Eddy Maday) and his quiet sister Chloe (Callina Lang) are along for the tour.
Writer David Koepp's resume is loaded with game changing blockbusters like "Jurassic Park" and "Mission Impossible" but he's in a quiet mode here, crafting a drama that's more about this family than any ghost.
At least, at first.
He teases us with snippets of facts. Rebekah seems to be in way over her head in something illegal at work. Chris gives off unhappy vibes and is pissed with the way his wife coddles Tyler while treating Chloe as a weak link.
Chloe is dealing with the recent, shocking drug overdoses of two friends, one of them her best friend.
When she begins to feel a presence in her room, she says her recently passed friend's name aloud.
Is it her?
I think we've all been alone in a room and suddenly felt like we were being watched or that someone else was in the room with us. It's palpable.
Soderbergh and Koepp do a masterful job of creating that feeling.
It's magnified when the camera is the presence and you're staring right at the person that suddenly knows you're there.
What may have started as a simple concept of an "inside-out Paranormal Activity movie" morphs into something much more, thanks to strong work on both sides of the camera.
When the presence does make itself known to the family, it's more fascinating than it is horrifying.
West Mulholland is a terrific add as Ryan, a new friend of Tyler's who almost immediately has feelings for Chloe. Mulholland holds the screen anytime he's on it and as his role in the story grows, events in the house escalate. Callina Lang matches him in every scene, she's a quiet powerhouse.
The film is an excruciatingly slow build. I really enjoyed the style and patience that Soderbergh demonstrates in layering the story. He shot the entire film in three weeks in the one house, mostly in hypnotic, long-take tracking shots with a handheld camera. There are only about 30 edits in the entire 90 minute film. Most of them are a cut to black, with a time jump to the presence observing things in another room.
Stick with it. The final shot literally gave me chills. Not an easy thing to do these days, but it's a masterful moment and a hell of a tragic payoff.
Soderbergh has always been a fascinating director. Bouncing between big budget films like "Erin Brockovich", "Ocean's Eleven", "Traffic" and smaller films like PRESENCE, he's always anxious to explore a new genre or a small personal story.
What a fascinating little suspense/horror/drama he's come up with here.
It gets a spectral B.
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