Over Zoom I spoke to Koepp about writing within the confines of the film’s single point-of-view, the value of what’s left out of a story, dreams and screenwriting, and his thoughts on the business of screenwriting today. Presence opens January 24, 2025 from NEON.
Steven Soderbergh's 'Presence' is a ghost story where the audience is the ghost
· 2d
Steven Soderbergh cracks another genre with the clever ghost story Presence
Director Steven Soderbergh Feels a ‘Presence’
I need to be scared of something,” Steven Soderbergh tells me as we sit down to discuss his new film, Presence. “Every movie that I have worked on, there’s gotta be a pocket of fear about some aspect of it.
The writer teams with Steven Soderbergh on this haunting story with a twist: The entire film is shot from the point-of-view of the ghost.
The tingly thriller “Presence” starts with a knockout premise: What if you told a ghost story from the perspective of the ghost? Each scene in Steven Soderbergh’s impeccably crafted film is a single take that glides silently from room to room observing what happens in an ordinary suburban house.
Over the course of his nearly four-decade career, Steven Soderbergh has just about done it all—including, now, made a horror film. Presence is a ghost story like no other, assuming the first-person perspective of a specter that haunts a suburban clan that’s moved into its residence.
What makes “Presence” interesting is its point-of-view “gimmick.” It’s just the story that’s being told that’s somewhat hacky.
The camera is the ghost in Steven Soderbergh’s chillingly effective, experiential haunted house drama “Presence.”
Steven Soderbergh’s directorial credits include Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven, and Magic Mike. His latest, Presence, is a supernatural thriller shot entirely in the first-person perspective using a Sony Alpha 9 III mirrorless camera.
Presence holds its audience close with a nifty conceit in which Soderbergh is the eyes and ears of those watching and of his cast. May the adventurous, restless filmmaker keep on tinkering
We see the action unfold only from the point of view of the mysterious titular entity – a neat idea, but where are the chills?
Steven Soderbergh’s Presence radically subverts the haunted house genre - 4/5 Lucy Liu and Julia Fox star in a film that puts the viewer in the perspective of the ghost haunting a family’s new home
The camera is the ghost in Steven Soderbergh's chillingly effective, experiential haunted house drama "Presence."
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