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A family moves into the house of their dreams, big, spacious and close to all the necessary facilities.
What they didn't know is that there was already a tenant in that house before them and he is still living there. Little by little the daughter will begin to feel that presence more and more strongly.
The whole film is seen from the point of view of the friendly ghost. We see how time goes by and the different vicissitudes in which the characters find themselves.
An experimental work by director Steven Soderbergh, in which the tension is served with disturbing silences and tours of the house that manage to intrigue you, as it lurks and observes in every corner, after reliving mysterious moments the family begins to question their sanity or the danger they face with this menacing force.
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Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan are the parents, she a protective and very suspicious mother, he doesn't believe what is happening and tries to keep calm as best he can.
Presence has an appealing premise in its theory. The story is shown from the point of view of the ghost, information that is transferred organically to the spectator through the tracking shots of the characters or the static camera in the place where the presence is always noticed.
In this sense, the subjective gaze of the spectre is an innovation worth praising.
It is a daring proposal and an invitation to question the way this genre is created and consumed. At times it seems more like an ethics film where the fear is generated by the dynamics of a broken family rather than the presence of a spectral entity.
There is something unseen, but it is there. Soderbergh, in addition to being director, is in charge - as in many of his works, although here he does not use a pseudonym - of the cinematography and video editing.
This is relevant, since direction, photography and editing are all working in unison towards a specific idea. The construction of presence in absence.