Presence: microbudget ghost story 'packs quite a punch'

Steven Soderbergh's unusual take on a haunted house thriller divides critics

Callina Liang in Presence
'Small but perfectly formed': the film reportedly took just three weeks to shoot
(Image credit: Alamy / Album)

"Steven Soderbergh has made some big films" over the course of his career, from "Ocean's Eleven" to "Erin Brockovich", said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. "And now, he's made a very small one": a microbudget ghost story "that reportedly took only three weeks to shoot".

It tells the story of a married couple (Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan) who move to a recently renovated suburban house with their two children, only to discover that it's inhabited by a mysterious "presence". The film is shot from the point of view of the ghost, which inspects the new arrivals until their daughter (Callina Liang) senses it, at which point it retreats into a cupboard. It all builds to an interesting ending, but the film "never really scares", and I found the central gimmick – of having the camera, wielded by Soderbergh himself, represent the ghost – rather wearying.

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