Presence is less a movie than it is a gimmick, and while I'm all for Soderbergh making smaller films, this is the latest frustrating example of his tendency to go for volume above all else.
Steven Soderbergh’s new horror movie “Presence,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is unsettling all right. The “Erin Brockovich” director moves his camera around so much, you want to yell at the screen, “Settle down, please! I have a headache!” There is a rationale for his nearly-non-stop motion shtick: the audience is experiencing the haunted house from the perspective of a ghost. And this particular ghost apparently needs to get its steps in. However, aside from a couple creepy voyeuristic scenes that the technique complements, its more obvious purpose is for Soderbergh to show off elaborate tracking shots.
Thirty-five years after his debut 'sex, lies, and videotape' wowed Sundance and kicked off a new era for American indie film, the hardest-and-fastest-working auteur in movies returns to the fest to push boundaries again.
Presence Review: Steven Soderbergh Successfully Experiments With Ghostly Trauma In Horror Thriller screenrant.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from screenrant.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Steven Soderbergh returned to Sundance with the lean haunted house story 'Presence,' filmed entirely from the perspective of the ghost. Read EW's review.
'Presence' Review — Steven Soderbergh's Ghost Story Is an Inventive Delight collider.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from collider.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Presence Review - Steven Soderbergh's Thrilling Haunter bloody-disgusting.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bloody-disgusting.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.