Presence Parent Guide

We’ve all seen haunted house films before. But have you ever seen one told from the perspective of the ghost?

The house in question has just been sold and one of the new residents, Chloe (Callina Liang) is having an awful year. Two of her friends have died of drug overdoses, and her mom Rebecca (Lucy Liu) moved the family across town so that Chloe’s brother, Tyler (Eddy Maday), could be in a more competitive school district. Chloe’s relationship with her dad, Chris (Chris Sullivan), is better, but there’s not much he can do, either to overrule his wife or to help his unfortunate daughter. Only Chloe has ever noticed the specter, and only briefly – but she’s starting to believe it might be one of her dead friends.

Incredibly, Presence was made for about two million dollars, which is chicken feed for a major release, let alone one this good. It pulls that off by having extremely limited scope – the film is limited to the interior of one house, shot from one camera perspective (that of the ghost), with only five on-screen characters and almost no special effects shots. The film takes advantage of its unusual perspective to tell a slower, more character-driven story than your average haunted house flick.

The film isn’t particularly scary, at least not in a conventional sense. It turns out that being the ghost haunting someone is more solitary, perplexing, and melancholy than it is terrifying. This is also a fascinating approach to filmmaking, and it’s rare to have the audience as a character without interruption. There are, however, some hiccups.

Family audiences are going to have problems with just about everything but the filmmaking. The plot revolves around teenagers getting in trouble - and they sure did their level best to fill out my notebook with drug use, drinking, sex, violence, and some just downright cruel behaviour rounding out the story. These behaviors aren’t glorified, but it’s still going to be an awkward pick for a family movie night.

Considerable content concerns notwithstanding, I really enjoyed this movie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything else quite like it, and it’s a fascinating experience, well worth the price of admission. Presence is somewhat morose, regularly upsetting, and incredibly compelling. The movie is quite short to compensate for its slower pace, which works well in keeping everything on track from the mournful introduction to the dismal credits. Naturally, I had a great time.