Starring Lucy Liu, Callina Liang, Chris Sullivan, Eddy Maday

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Neon, in cinemas now

A family of four moves into a new house, which is not as unoccupied as it looks.

Like Debbie Harry and Darth Vader, within minutes of entering their prospective home, teenage daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) is touched by a presence… one that has been prowling the empty rooms prior to their arrival.

We know this because the entirety of Steven Soderbergh’s new psycho-supernatural drama is shot from the wide-angled, steadicam POV of a restless wandering spirit, trapped inside the walls of a (dimly lit) suburban house. This is not the spoiler it might appear to be, because the narrative question the movie asks is: Who is this spirit and what is its quest?

In that respect Presence is less of a spooky chiller than a Who-Haunts-It. Vulnerable Chloe has recently lost her best friend Nadia to a drugs overdose; her parents’ marriage is falling apart; she is alienated from her arrogant swim-jock brother; and the house clearly has a history, furnished as it is with antique mirrors from generations long past…

On the positive side, the story-telling compels as it weaves between family/troubled-teen drama and a sense of impending supernatural doom. Less successful are its mechanics, especially when the movie breaks its own rules, which it does frequently, our restless spirit gaining and losing powers at random to suit the narrative. This is distracting, and detracts from a story which ultimately has real heart. A poltergeist can either do the whole Mary Poppins thing or it can’t. Soderbergh and writer David Koepp needed to make up their minds and stick to it.

Verdict: Unfortunately, it is all too easy to dismiss Presence as little more than Caspar the Friendly Ghost as if reimagined by M Night Shyamalan – which is a shame because it has a decent story to tell, and the spectral POV had the potential to give the movie real edge. 6/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com