Presence is a small movie that may be advertised as a horror movie, but that would not be accurate. This is much more of a psychological drama than anything else. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Presence takes a different look at the haunted house sub-genre than what we have seen before.

A family moved into a new home after a tragic event struck. Chris (Chris Sullivan) and Rebekah (Lucy Liu) was a troubled couple with two kids, Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang). Chloe’s best friend had recently died, but the parents seemed to be more focused on moving so Tyler can get into the proper high school for the swim team.

Chloe immediately started getting a feeling, sensing that there was something in the house… a presence.

There were some interesting characters involved here. Rebekah seemed much more connected to Tyler and less connected with Chloe. Chris appeared to be a really wonderful father, being very supportive of Chloe and calling Tyler out on his garbage. There were more issues with the family than there was with this “ghost.”

What I enjoyed the most in this movie was how it was shot. There were a bunch of single-shot scenes that were shot as if it were the POV of the spirit. I really enjoyed that gimmick. It was something that I had not seen before and I thought it was a creative use of the camera.

It was also a major surprise at the end that made something earlier in the film make sense. No spoilers on it, but there was something that happened about midway through the film that made no sense. However, it did make sense by the ending of the film which I appreciated.

Overall this was a decent film. It was not what I expected, but the story was good. The acting was fine. I loved the way it was shot. It may not have been the best movie of the year, and it is absolutely not a horror movie, but it was a good time.

3.6 stars