• Director: Steven Soderbergh
• Screenplay: David Koepp
• Cast: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang
• Cinematography: Steven Soderbergh
• Editing: Mary Ann Bernard
• Score: Zack Ryan
• Genre: Supernatural thriller drama
• Runtime: 85 minutes

Director (and cinematographer) Steven Soderbergh takes the ‘haunted house’ tale and puts his spin on it. The entirety of the film is shot from the first-person perspective; the POV of an apparition wandering around; walking down the stairs, retreading those steps back upstairs – we’re getting a guided tour of the property complete with 360 degree panoramic shots of the rooms. The scenes are brief and end suddenly, darting forwards in time by a short interval.

A new family move into the suburban abode; a detached mother (Lucy Liu), an agitated father (Chris Sullivan), their swimming champ son and a daughter who’s recently lost her best friend and is struggling to cope with the pain. There’s a fifth member of the household, an unwelcome guest, a ghost in the machine…’the presence’, which only the daughter has the ability to sense.

We’ve got the usual poltergeist shenanigans; objects moving supposedly of their own accord, doors closing etc. yet this has more intrigue to it than the standard spooky fare. It’s quietly engrossing – what is going on exactly? Who is this mysterious spectre? Are they a manifestation of the girl’s grief perhaps? What do they want?

Points off for not fully exploring the premise – for example, the parents’ crumbling marriage could’ve been fleshed out and we don’t necessarily get answers to every question raised. Intriguingly filmed, ‘Presence‘ will continue to haunt after the screen fades to black.

My rating: 6 / 10