Knock on Wood

Steven Soderbergh has done everything there is to do as a director. He made an indelible impact on the entertainment industry through his breakthrough independent films, worked within the studio system, and then returned to independent film – so what’s the next step? In the past few years, Soderbergh has cranked out at least one movie per year, and since he shot an entire film on an iPhone 7 (2018’s Unsane), he’s been at constant play in the experimental sphere.

The latest in this trend is Presence (written by Jurassic Park and Spider-Man scribe David Koepp), a film that, on the surface, purports to be a supernatural horror movie from the first-person point of view of a supernatural entity haunting a house. I was surprised to discover that Presence is actually a compelling coming-of-age dramedy that just so happens to be told from the perspective of this unnamed, unknown entity – it is an objective narrator because that is all it knows how to be. We follow as it glides through the house, occasionally following one character, occasionally following another, and through Soderbergh’s effective use of a wide-angle camera lens, the homestead begins to feel much bigger and inviting. Through the entity’s eyes, we are just as at home as it is, even if we’re not sure why we’re there just yet.

The setup is fairly cliché, but that also means it’s familiar and comforting: after their daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) loses her best friend to drug addiction, the Payne family moves into a new house. We see this play out through the eyes of the timeless entity, who seems confused but well-intentioned nonetheless. Through its viewpoint, we see the tenuous relationship between mom Rebecca (Kill Bill’s Lucy Liu) and dad Chris (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s Chris Sullivan), the tumultuous connection between Chloe and her older brother Tyler (Eddy Maday), and Chloe’s burgeoning romance with her comically bro-type classmate Ryan (West Mulholland), among other events. We lose track of time just as the entity does, and settle into the solace of domesticity with our leads.

Presence is not a scary movie. It’s actually very sweet, charming, and strangely funny, and horror-averse moviegoers will be relieved at the lack of deliberately jarring jump scares. As Chloe begins to form a connection with the entity, at first unconsciously, it becomes clear that under the central gimmick, Presence is about dealing with trauma but not allowing it to define you.

This is, of course, a subject horror movies have been formed around for decades, but it’s because of its unique approach to the genre that Presence manages to stand out amongst the rest. It’s not necessarily a plot-driven film, but after selling me on the characters and their stories, I was all in. I would have probably enjoyed a more straightforward version of this, even without the entity, but the last five minutes absolutely blew me away and tied everything together in a way I never even thought to expect. Never underestimate an experimental filmmaker, especially one who has been working in the industry for over 35 years and has nothing to lose. That’s when you know you’re getting something that’s genuine and fueled by passion alone – it’s not being created out of a contractual obligation. It’s born purely out of love for the craft. Soderbergh’s effort to keep his work innovative and challenging will stand the test of time far better than your standard studio blockbuster.

Presence will open in limited theaters on January 17, before expanding to a wide release on January 24.