Steven Soderbergh's The Presence is steadily building a reputation as an unconventional ghost story, with director Maverick choosing to actually play the Ghost himself and shoot the entire film from the Ghost's point of view. How My review from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival (where the film explains), this technique allows "presence" to blur the line between found footage film and character POV film of a subversively clever: while the camera is exposed enough to move at will and be present in situations that Other a human person could not observe, Soderbergh never lets us forget the fact that there is an identity to this point of view, even if the subject himself does not know who he is to begin with.

This perspective means The Presence is less of a terrifying supernatural horror film and more of a thoughtful, character-driven thriller, because after all, we know where the ghost is at all times even when the other characters don't. It also arguably makes The Presence a watershed moment in the annals of haunted house movies, changing what has been the norm in the subgenre for decades. Cederberg seems to be well aware of this fact, as seen in a wonderful easter egg in the film that horror fans and especially Tobe Hooper fans will notice right away. In paying homage to 1982's Poltergeist with this Easter egg, Soderbergh refers to "Presence" as the next step in the evolution of the Hound House movie.

The Gone House movie was born out of the traditions seen in Gothic literature, with some dark, gruesome and mysterious goings-on usually taking place in distant and remote (not to mention grand and foreboding) homes. As such, many of the haunted house films from classic Hollywood and beyond have seen characters travel to these ominous places, usually discovering at some point that some ancient curse or legend or incident took place there many years ago, as in one of the seminal works of the subgenre , "Uncanned" from 1944. Then, around the 1960s, Haunt House movies began to expand beyond the "destination haunted house" tradition. The characters were seen to actively try to investigate the paranormal (as in "The Haunting" and "Legend of Hell House"), as well as to try and contain or extinguish the evil spirits that already lived with them (as in "The Amityville Horror ").

Poltergeist was the first mainstream horror film to bring the haunted house from the remote corners of the literal distance and figurative past. Instead, It brought paranormal activity right to the front door of every suburban lot. In the film, the family at the center of the story isn't buying a creepy old mansion with a history of violence, but a brand that's rolling out a new luxury home. Of course, it turns out that the house may be new, but the land it sits on is old, and the unscrupulous developers didn't make the homeowners aware of how they were unable to move the cemetery that once stood there (or rather , still does ). "Poltergeist" is when the Haunt House movie literally came home.

For the opening and end titles of "Presence", the font used is one that is almost the same as seen in "Poltergeist". It's essentially a Helvetica medium (or possibly bold) with every letter outlined in white, and its eerie simplicity still has a chilling power to anyone who remembers the Poltergeist marketing materials. Ironically, those titles are the first images seen in both films, so the font seems to be a deliberate homage by "Presence".

David Cope's script for "presence" is rooted in the A ghost story and haunted house movie tradition: The families in the film go through numerous financial and interpersonal issues; When they stumble upon a supernatural presence in their new home, they are skeptical, but decide to investigate anyway (and involve a medium in this, naturally); And there are several mysteries to be solved—not only who the ghost might be and what it wants, but also what might be responsible for the deaths of several teenagers around town. In this way, it's a bit more classic than even Poltergeist was. However, Soderbergh's choice to tell the story this way, not only emphasizing the Ghost POV, but relying on sadness more than scares, lends a "presence" that subversive twist that puts it on par with Hopper's film.

The Poltergeist Easter Egg isn't the only "Presence" connection to other movies (there is a connection between the movie and Christopher Nolan's Interstellar Although to explain why would be a spoiler), but it is the most famous. If Poltergeist was Hopper's way of announcing to Americans that we need to acknowledge our country's history before we can truly move on, then The Presence is Soderbergh and Kopp acknowledging how powerless many of us feel to stop them. the terrible events that we see before us. If we are not careful, we may all end up like the ghost in the movie, unable to move on, until we send a mistake that we failed to recognize when we were alive. Maybe "presence" is pretty scary after all.