Steven Soderbergh is a celebrated filmmaker, acknowledged for motion pictures together with Erin Brokovich, Visitors, and his debut Intercourse, Lies, and Videotape. By no means afraid to push boundaries, the director is now bringing his distinctive perspective to the 2025 film calendar together with his upcoming horror film Presence. Starring Lucy Liu, Julia Fox and Chris Sullivan, Presence is lastly hitting theaters on January 24 — a full yr after it started garnering consideration from its premiere at Sundance and different movie festivals. Let’s see what critics are saying about Soderbergh’s supernatural thriller.
Informed from the angle of the entity that inhabits the house of the Payne household, Presence is seemingly so intense that some viewers members walked out of its movie competition premiere, and even the solid was reportedly left shaken. CinemaBlend’s Corey Chichizola had the chance to see the movie, and he says Presence places a spin on POV horror that he by no means knew he wanted. He writes:
The ending of Presence is really transferring. The story is expertly crafted, permitting the viewers and the characters of the movie to actually earn its remaining moments. And it proved that POV horror and located footage nonetheless has the potential to make a big effect.
Lindsey Bahr of the AP offers the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying as director and cinematographer, Steven Soderbergh actually IS the ghost, and he weaves fairly the “chillingly efficient story” that packs an sudden punch. Bahr says:
It’s a slow-burn expertise that sneaks up on you, particularly when you’ve seen the way it performs out. Personally, I didn’t see any of it coming and couldn’t have anticipated the emotional wallop it could pack in the long run. It’s a heady experiment that transcends the considerably gimmicky-on-paper premise — one thing Soderbergh manages to do alarmingly nicely and repeatedly.
Jesse Hassenger of AV Membership offers it a B+, likening the film to the Paranormal Exercise franchise with a twist. The brand new spin on discovered footage horror is price each penny of the ticket worth, the critic says, writing:
It’s a Paranormal Exercise film turned inside-out: Quite than a largely stationary digicam capturing glints of spooky however eerily life like motion within the body, the digicam stays cellular and hovering, its ghostliness an invisible however driving drive. Just like the Paranormal movies, there is a component of surveillance: The digicam travels by rooms unnoticed, overhearing bits of dialog and observing actions stored secret from different characters. It’s directly omniscient and deeply subjective. There’s additionally one other technical problem readily available for Soderbergh, who has professed way more affinity for the lower than the epically lengthy take: to remain true to his POV gimmick, most scenes are staged in single unbroken pictures. Cuts transfer ahead in time, not inside a scene.
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Solar-Instances charges Presence 3 out of 4 stars, positing that it was such an attention-grabbing story that it could have even labored with out the ghost. The dysfunctional household gives the drama, and actually the horror too. Roeper continues:
Presence does have a number of efficient bounce scares, together with one goosebump-inducing second late within the story, however the extra we get to know the ghost — and I do know that sounds bizarre, however we do really feel like we come to know him/her/it/they/them — the extra we really feel a way of empathy for this being. Just like the Beast in Magnificence and the Beast or the Phantom of the Opera, this ghost appears to be a type of tragic antihero, trapped on this home, suspended in some kind of in-between world, bearing witness to a contemporary American household that ought to be glad about all of the items life has given them however is falling aside on the seams. That’s the actual horror of Presence.
Whereas many critics are shopping for into Steven Soderbergh’s POV, Nerds of Coloration’s Mike Manalo says the acquainted dysfunctional household story drags down the director’s makes an attempt to brighten up the trope of getting a lifeless protagonist. Manalo applauds its numerous solid, although, and admits the film continues to be price seeing. The critic offers Presence an A for illustration however a C+ for leisure, writing:
Total, it’s good that there’s a haunted home film, shot within the first-person POV, centered on a blended Asian American household. Presence is an entertaining sufficient 90-minute household drama with robust performances from a POC solid (and Sullivan). Nevertheless, it’s additionally a cliched and forgettable 90-minute household drama, with twists and a central idea that (regardless of the modern nature of the way it was filmed) we’ve seen far too many instances. I wouldn’t precisely put it excessive on my must-see checklist for this yr. Nevertheless, I’m joyful {that a} movie like this exists, at the least for illustration functions.
The critics have plenty of attention-grabbing takes on the upcoming haunted home film, however total they appear to agree that Steven Soderbergh’s POV is one price testing. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s been Licensed Recent with 88% on the Tomatometer, so if you wish to see what this film is all about — and what had individuals strolling out of theaters on the competition circuit — Presence hits theaters on Friday, January 24.