Review: Who Will You Call? Steven Soderbergh plays the Ghostbuster with a new, sly thriller Presence

Presence

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Written by David Koepp

Actor Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and Callina Liang

Classification PG; 85 minutes

Opens in theaters January 24

Critic’s Choice

Steven Soderbergh’s answer to Poltergeistthe new exuberant and fast-paced haunted house thriller Presence is further proof that the director is, if not at least the most adventurous filmmaker working today, certainly the most restless.

Averaging one film a year since returning from his self-imposed “retirement” in 2017, Soderbergh has been making movies shot entirely on iPhones (High-flying bird, Unhealthy), films that had to navigate the very heights of pandemic-era restrictions (Kimi, No sudden movement), and another that balanced the logistics of shooting aboard a transatlantic cruise with the improvisational whims of star Meryl Streep (Let them all speak).

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And now Soderbergh has given himself a more awkward challenge by making a film where he is essentially the star. Filmed entirely from the point of view of an invisible ghost, Presence positions Soderbergh – not only as director, but also cinematographer and cameraman – as eyes and ears for both his audience and his actors. The result is a kind of two-way voyeuristic mirror, where Soderbergh is the spirit, or presence, caught between the world on and off the screen.

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It’s a clever conceit, but stretched to feature-length form it might have fallen apart without David Koepp’s quick script (developed from an initial 10-page outline written by Soderbergh). When Presence opens, Chris (Chris Sullivan) and Rebecca (Lucy Liu) are just another happy couple with two teenage children looking to expand their horizons and move into a better school district. But after they all move into their new house, it’s clear that something is deeply wrong – and it’s not just the ghost/camera tracking the family’s every move.

Deeply playful while never succumbing to the genre’s more greedy tendencies – remarkably, Soderbergh seems to have invented a new way to film a “jump scare” here – Presence keeps its audience close and close and builds to a finale that forces you to rethink the whole experiment. May Sodebergh keep tinkering for decades to come.