‘Presence’ Offers Up Hauntingly Accurate Picture About Changing Spirituality
(REVIEW) “Presence” is a great story with a smart perspective twist that makes the narrative pop. It’s also eerily prescient about the trends in faith in our culture today.
Some have said that the reason Halloween was growing in popularity was because we fear what we don’t understand. And with the decline of Christianity in the West, we no longer know what death truly is. So, our primary artistic ways of expressing death have become terrifying. This may explain why horror has become such a popular genre for exploring the deepest questions of humanity, like nostalgia (“Nope”), grief (“Talk to Me”), technology (“M3GAN”) and trauma (“Smile”). Now “Presence” adds death and regret to this long list.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh (of “Ocean’s Eleven” fame) and written by David Koepp (“Jurassic Park”), “Presence” is a haunted house movie told from the perspective of the ghost — quite literally. We never see the ghost, as the camera is the ghost’s point of view. The movie follows a family that moves into a house, haunted not only by its supernatural history but also by the family’s own domestic conflicts — all while being observed by a ghost who has an unknown connection to them.
The film’s use of the camera to tell its story from the point of view of the ghost is perfect in both style and substance. “Camera gimmick” movies often feel at least a little bit like just that — a gimmick. But Soderbergh’s use of this technique feels like the ideal way to tell this particular story.
Making the camera the perspective of a ghostly observer gives the audience the best of both worlds: the omniscience of a camera shot with the personal investment of a character. Because it’s a ghost, following the characters like a camera doesn’t feel arbitrary; it feels like an expression of care that encourages us to care. Since we see from the ghost’s perspective, our focus is on the people rather than the ghost. It’s a brilliant storytelling device, and one I hope to see more of.
I love that the film is essentially a family drama viewed from a supernatural vantage point. Through the ghost’s eyes, we watch the family love each other, fight with each other, sob with each other or cry alone. These people feel archetypically familiar but have a lot of depth as we watch them peel back their layers. It’s easy to relate to their struggles and root for them to overcome their challenges.
The main problem lies with the story’s ending. Most of it works, but — while trying to spoil as little as possible — two of the key characters (the women, ironically) don’t really get to exhibit much agency to fulfill their character arcs. This is particularly unfortunate for Chloe, whose story is given the most weight throughout the film, only for her to end up merely being the catalyst for a man’s character development.
It’s also worth noting that while the trailer — and most of the film — comes off as a family drama with a supernatural perspective, the ending is decidedly disturbing. Though nothing overtly gory is shown, the sadistic level of threat in the near-final moments is a sharp shift that, at times, feels viscerally exploitative. This is especially concerning since it’s perpetrated against a woman. This is something people should be aware of if they’re planning to see it.
A scene from the new movie “Presence.” (Photo courtesy of Neon)
The film also gives a fairly accurate picture of our culture’s modern move toward the supernatural. As people are abandoning organized religion, they’re not becoming secular, but embracing “new age spirituality” — with beliefs in some kind of God and/or spirits and various occult or folk methods of connecting with them.
This is particularly true of young women. Belief in ghosts, haunted houses and the supernatural have always been more typical of women than men. This is because women trust their intuitions more than men do. Belief in the supernatural tends to correlate with those who “test low in cognitive reflection”, which is another way of saying, people who trust their gut instead of running what their gut tells them by their analytical reasoning before they believe it.
The movie reflects this. The people who are most open to the ghost are the ones who are emotional and intuitive: The daughter and the father. The ones who are most skeptical are the ones who are most “masculine” — the mom and son — and most ambitious, rational and practical. When they get a spiritual medium to come help them, it’s a woman, with her husband assisting her and explaining what she does.
The movie sides with the intuitive and the spiritual over the analytical and the rational. The daughter is the spiritual medium who tries to warn her family of what’s coming. But the mom and the son are convinced she’s a quack and so chase her away, not following her warnings. This leads to dire and tragic results.
On one hand, this movie puts the supernatural all in the same bucket: Whether from organized religion or individual spirituality, it exists in the realm of the unknown and should therefore be embraced by the intellectually humble. The dad talks to his daughter about the fact that his mother was very religious, which was a major barrier between them for years. But toward the end of his life, he was softer toward her because, he says, “What do I know? Maybe she was right?” It’s for this reason he decides to believe his daughter. But in a sense, it’s because he loves her and wants her to feel loved and heard.
In a greater sense, the film privileges individual spirituality over organized religion. When the psychic comes, she and her husband explain that some people are able to experience what exists on the other side of death. People who meet God are able to experience it a little, while individual people — like the psychic — are able to experience it fully.
This means the movie privileges a spirituality that is becoming increasingly gendered toward single women. Increasingly, men are rejoining organized religion while single women abandon it en masse. Men are joining the church because they see it as rational and focused on doctrine, tradition and structure. But while women are traditionally more religious than men, more and more women are seeing religion as a barrier toward their intuitive spirituality.
Religions demand their own kind of "cognitive reflection” where you check what your spiritual intuition says against the church’s doctrine — some of which is seen as misogynistic and oppressive. This is why women are abandoning religion for new age or occult practices that make their own gut the only guide for spiritual realities.
It wouldn’t surprise me if — down the line — a movie like “Presence” would portray the masculine characters as religious rather than secular. While this film treats belief in God and belief in psychics or trusting your intuitive spirituality as on the same side, in the future the people who believe in these things will be in completely different camps.
“Presence” isn’t perfect, but it’s is an excellent example of how one can use the film medium to tell moving stories in clever new ways. It’s also a really good example of modern trends in spirituality. Whether you think those trends are good or not depends on how much time you spend cognitively reflecting on it.
“Presence” is in theaters now.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at his website josephholmesstudios.com.