Here’s the teaser for Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence.”
Neon bought “Presence” at Sundance, back in January. The reactions for Soderbergh’s 85-minute ghost story have been positive — it’s at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 38 reviews) and 80 on Metacritic. The film is set to screen at TIFF in September.
Soderbergh’s latest effort is a spookfest starring Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, and Julia Fox. This is a horror film, well, actually, it’s being dubbed a “psychological thriller,” but, based on the reviews, it’s very much in the vein of horror.
Written by David Koepp, “Presence” takes place in a suburban house that’s inhabited by an unknown force. What’s particularly original about the film is that Soderbergh decided to shoot the entire thing from the point-of-view of the ghost.
It’s arguable no director has transcended multiple genres the way the great Soderbergh has, especially over the last decade. The prolific filmmaker has moved between psychological thriller, to drama, to comedy, never allowing the films to lose that slick touch he infuses into all of his cinema.
Soderbergh has directed over 35 films in his career. In my books, his 10 best are “Traffic,” “The Limey,” “Out of Sight,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Sex, Lies & Videotape,” “The Informant,” “Logan Lucky” “Haywire,” “Erin Brockovich,” and “Behind the Candelabra.”
Neon hasn’t exactly dated “Presence”, but today’s press release announced that the film will arrive sometime in January 2025.