How terrifying is the presence of Steven Soderbergh’s horror movie? R rating explained

In this era of streaming entertainment, moviegoers’ criteria for what qualifies as a multiplex-worthy movie have changed dramatically. Generally, a movie has to be a four-quadrant tentpole or family-friendly animated nonsense (preferably with a toy or video game) to get people out of their homes. Comedies are no longer a safe play, nor are dramas skewed towards adults. Small-scale films in general tend to be watched on the couch as a second-screen distraction. Horror movies, however, are usually an exception.

Whether big studio productions like “Nosferatu,” “A Quiet Place: Day One” and “Alien: Romulus,” or more modest-scale indie efforts like “Longlegs,” “Terrifier 3” and “Talk to Me,” The Moviegoers (mostly younger ones) will show up on opening weekend, as long as the bait is well baited. They don’t need stars, and they certainly don’t need gushing early words from critics (sadly); All they want are some good scares, a creepy atmosphere, and, if it’s a horror movie, a handful of twisted kills.

Prestige is rarely a consideration when it comes to moviegoers’ interest in the genre, so the fact that highly esteemed Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh has made his first official horror film in “Presence” It probably won’t move the needle. a lot for teenagers and twenty-somethings (most of whom weren’t even born when he won Best Director for “Traffic” in 2001). However, they’ll perk up when they hear the hook: It’s a haunted house movie filmed from the ghost’s perspective, meaning the ghost is the camera. It’s a dynamite concept that ignites the visual imagination, something that can’t be said for many films throughout cinema history.

What does that look like? How does this conceit work within the confines of a conventionally structured narrative? Most importantly, if the audience is essentially a ghost, how do you create scares?

The answer to that last question is simply no. And that’s what makes “Presence” such an exhilarating and unique experience.

“Presence” reunites Soderbergh with screenwriter David Koepp, who wrote his witty 2022 thriller “Kimi.” Koepp is best known as the top writer of blockbusters like “Jurassic Park” and the upcoming “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Spider-Man,” but he’s an intriguing choice for “Presence.” given that he wrote and directed a fantastic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s paranormal horror novel “Stir of Echoes” in 1999. Now, that The film, in which an average Joe (Kevin Bacon) finds himself in contact with the spirit realm after being hypnotized, was terrifying; in fact, it’s probably responsible for preparing some moviegoers for something truly terrifying in “Presence.”

Koepp’s plot centers on a family of four who are eager to move into a new house after a vaguely mentioned tragedy that claims the life of their daughter’s best friend. The mother, Rebekah (Lucy Liu), runs the show, valuing the house less for its considerable two-story charms than for its proximity to a high school with a top-ranked swim team on which her son, Tyler (Eddy Maday). will probably prosper. She could care less about the well-being of her grief-stricken daughter Chloe (Callina Liang), so it’s up to her complacent husband Chris (Chris Sullivan) to keep the entire family unit together, which is complicated by her exploration of a divorce in light of Rebekah’s involvement in a shady financial deal.

This is all from the perspective of an unknown entity that floats throughout the house and seems particularly interested in Chloe. Soderbergh skillfully places the audience on the ghost’s emotional wavelength by having him express, through his movements, feelings of curiosity, anger and fear. Her safe space is Chloe’s closet, where she watches her blossoming relationship with Tyler’s swim teammate Ryan (West Mulholland). Ryan presents himself as an ideal boyfriend; he respects Chloe’s boundaries and asks for her consent as they tiptoe toward sexual intimacy. But we can sense from the ghost’s energy that he is skeptical, if not hostile, toward Ryan.

If this sounds more disturbing than terrifying, that’s by Soderbergh’s design. The “presence” is not meant to scare you. Narratively, it is a mystery that unfolds in a conventionally structured manner. What keeps it from seeming gimmicky is the ghost’s keen interest in the family, drawing us to this haunted space they inhabit. It is this quality that makes “Presence” a vital work of art from a master filmmaker.

There’s a legitimate scare in “Presence” and it comes at the perfect time. A great deal of suspense is also built during a visit from a spiritual medium (Natalie Woolams-Torres), a scene reminiscent of any number of haunted house movies (while also injecting a bit of levity into the proceedings). But “Presence” is more “Ordinary People” than “Poltergeist.” It’s about a family being torn apart and left vulnerable to an evil and all-too-human force. There’s almost no violence and certainly no blood, so what’s up with the R rating?

Like any drama about domestic turmoil, there are more than a few F-bombs dropped throughout the film’s 85-minute running time. And we see Chloe having sex with Ryan from the point of view of the ghost in the closet. Overall, though, “Presence” is a deeply sad film. The only demons that need to be exorcised are those that have burrowed deep into the soul of each family member. If viewers open themselves to the film’s keen attention to character detail and, of course, its formal and subjective audacity of the camera, they will find “Presence” a gripping experience, the kind best shared in a dark room with strangers who harbor their own ghosts, because we are all tormented.