Dan Webster reviews "Presence"

DAN WEBSTER:

One of the most common horror movie genres is the ghost story. And most of the films that have been released over the past century featuring some sort of supernatural, ghostly entity have been simple attempts to scare us. Or at least give us nightmares. Or sometimes both.

Good or bad—and the bad far outnumber the good—the majority have been directed by filmmakers more interested in attracting attention—and therefore selling tickets—than in creating anything remotely artistic.

Yet the most memorable of those films have managed to do both. Think of the evil force that inhabits Linda Blair’s character in The Exorcist. Or the equally evil, and murderous, force that haunts three young, would-be filmmakers in The Blair Witch Project. Writer-director Oren Peli hit upon a clever means of instilling his Paranormal Activity with chilling imagery that, if not actual art, at least results in something somewhat original.

Speaking of crafting work that is original, the director Steven Soderbergh comes to mind. Beginning with the film that first brought him acclaim, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Soderbergh has worked in a range of genres. He’s made neo-noirs, Out of Sight and The Limey. He’s made heist films, notably his Oceans trilogy, and crime dramas, Traffic (which won him a Best Director Oscar). He’s made legal thrillers, Erin Brockovich and even dabbled in science fiction with his remake of Solaris.

And now Soderbergh has brought his skill to a film titled Presence, a ghost story written by the veteran David Koepp.

Actually, to call Presence a mere ghost story doesn’t do the film justice. True, the family that the film follows does end up being affected by a mysterious essence. But the dynamics that family engages in—the vying affections, the needs met and unmet, the hints at illegalities done in the name of love—provide Soderbergh’s film a solid enough subtext for the mystery to take root.

Regardless of genre, nothing gives a story more of a dramatic foundation than some spirited domestic squabbling. And squabble this foursome does. That goes for the parents Rebekah (played by Lucy Liu) and Chris (played by Chris Sullivan). But it applies especially to their children, son Tyler (played by Eddy Maday) and daughter Chloë (played by Callina Liang).

When we first meet the family, they’re being led through a house by a perky real-estate agent. And quickly enough, we understand that the family’s driving force is Rebekah. And almost as quickly, it becomes apparent that of her two children, her favorite is Tyler.

Dad Chris is—or at least tries to be—the family mediator, supporting Rebekah even in the face of something—we never discover exactly what—that she may have done to give Tyler the opportunities she thinks he should have. But, too, Chris tries to protect Chloë, who is still grieving the loss of a close friend, one of two young girls in the area who recently died suddenly… the suspicion being that both were messing around with drugs.

Being a social climber at school, and furious that downbeat Chloë is cramping his style, Tyler befriends a popular boy at their new school, Ryan (played by West Mulholland). Soon enough, though, Ryan begins to take an interest not so much in Tyler as he does in Chloë.

As outlined by screenwriter Koepp, Presence does have a few surprising incidents, even if what eventually occurs is fairly predictable (pay attention to the medium who comes calling). Consequently, in the hands of a less skilled director, the film might have ended up as just another half-baked creep show.

But this, remember, is Soderbergh, and being not just the director but also both cinematographer and editor, he uses a roving camera to capture the sense of something unseen that is watching the family’s every move. And since we the audience are seeing everything that happens from the unseen entity’s point of view, instead of merely witnessing the story we become part of it.

So when closet shelves suddenly collapse, and when a shrill screech sounds loud enough to wake the dead, you’ll know: "It’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive!"

For Spokane Public Radio, I’m Dan Webster.

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Movies 101 host Dan Webster is the senior film critic for Spokane Public Radio and a blogger for Spokesman.com.