Steven Soderbergh’s career is one always to admire and watch excitedly. Even after trying to retire from making films, he’s been back and working at if not the same speed he had before, but maybe faster. It’s a common occurrence when Soderbergh releases two films in one year. I’ll admit, I’ve missed some of the HBO Max day & date releases.

I was excited when hearing that his latest film, another in the horror genre, Presence, was going to be playing at TIFF. To learn that the film would take place in a home, and be shot from the perspective of a ghostly spirit that lingers behind, I knew I couldn’t miss the movie. 

David Koepp wrote Presence, who previously wrote Soderbergh’s Kimi and his upcoming film Black Bag. While Koepp has a prolific career, films like Presence can live and die by the premise they put themselves into. 

The film follows a family of four as they buy and move into a home. Before they’ve arrived, a spirit is there lingering around to greet them. Unknowingly, they aren’t aware of the titular presence in the home, but it follows them and is interested in them. As they move in and get comfortable, they are all going through things that the camera, the spirit, and we, the audience, are slowly finding out more about the family.

Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) are the parents of the household and are trying to keep the home and family together. Their oldest Tyler (Eddy Maday) is trying to succeed and be popular at school as he’s part of the swim team, while his sister Chloe (Callina Liang), is grieving the death of one of her friends after a drug overdose. 

As we watch the family navigate these issues, there’s a sadness as we’re peering into the family’s home. The film rarely leads into genuine “scary” territory, but a sense of helplessness comes into play. The way the camera moves around the home so seamlessly, it does become unsettling. There are moments in which a character in the film looks at the camera, even if just for a moment and it’s times like that we sometimes forget that this is a stand-in. The camera/presence then reacts and moves swiftly away from their view, just in case they could see them.

At times, the film feels like it loses steam due to some of the limitations the film puts on itself due to the premise. There are moments where characters are outside, and just out of reach and the camera stays inside, looking out. While it adds to the overall voyeurism of it all, it occasionally feels like both a rule that the camera isn’t allowed to step outside the home, but admittedly, adds to the helplessness feeling at times.

Since we’re following a ghostly spirit, time in the film doesn’t move in the same way. At least for them. At one point in the film, a spiritualist arrives at the home to do a reading, they state that time doesn’t work the same way as it does for us, but rather living it all at once, but the movie seems to be running in a narrative-based chronological order from what we can tell. There are moments when the frame goes completely black and we’d find ourselves a few days later trying to fill in the gaps, but doesn’t seem to get lost in the time.

As Soderbergh continues to make films that also feel like an experiment from time to time, there are moments in Presence where I find myself captivated by what might happen, or to learn more.   At moments, one can see the rules of the experiment being in use, but at other moments, I was entirely captivated, waiting for what came next. I had a great time with Presence.