MOVIE NEWS – Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp have found their soulmate in this creepy psychological thriller, in which we follow the unfolding of a crime from the perspective of the identity living in the house. The Presence is in cinemas from February 6!

The new psychological thriller by David Koepp, screenwriter of Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible and Panic Room, among others, was brought to the screen by Steven Soderbergh, director of Ocean’s Eleven, Magic Mike and Erin Brockovich. The plot of The Presence takes place in a suburban house, where a new family moves in, who soon realize that they are not alone. The special thing about the film is that we see the story through the perspective of the entity.

The film stars Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill), Julia Fox (Uncut Diamond) and Chris Sullivan (Guardians of the Galaxy), with Callina Liang and Eddy Maday also appearing. The Presence marks Soderbergh and Koepp’s second collaboration, having most recently worked together on the thriller Kimi (2022).

According to an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, the idea for the film was based on a very personal experience: Soderbergh and his wife bought a house in which a mother was killed by her daughter, with whom she had a turbulent relationship. The circumstances remained unclear, but all the neighbors were convinced of the murder. As the son of a parapsychologist, the director found the story interesting, and they even hoped for some kind of contact with a spirit, which eventually happened to their housekeeper, who saw a woman pass by in the hallway. This incident got Soderbergh thinking: what would it be like if the ghost of the woman who died in the house was still there, watching the new residents do what they were doing in their home?

Soderbergh was not only the director of The Presence, but also the cinematographer, using his father’s name (Peter Andrews) as the credits. “In some ways, it’s the simplest idea I’ve ever had. I teach my students to loosen up, to silence your ego, and to listen to what comes naturally. […] It’s practically the walking definition of that method. ‘What does identity want?’ That was one of the reasons we shot it chronologically (and we managed to do it chronologically, except for two scenes), to see what identity wants, to learn how to be.”

Callina Liang in The Presence. Steven Soderbergh is behind the camera.
“The only way to do that is to shoot the scenes in order, and then we start to think about what he knows, what he’s interested in, what he’s trying to get out of the situation [the identity].” – the director continues. “As the film progresses, the shots become more elaborate (although I’m not sure that’s the right term), but at least more controlled. It’s like this thing knows more and more where it needs to be if it wants to gather information. It was a lot of fun.”

As he pointed out to AP News, taking on the job of cinematographer was another level of performance anxiety because he messed up far more shots than anyone else on the film. But he highlights two real challenges for the Filmmaker Magazine reporter: one when he had to hold the 10-12-pound camera for a long time, up to 8 minutes, for a scene, and the other was climbing stairs. “We filmed in that house for a month, and there was never a moment when I wasn’t looking where I was going when I went up and down the stairs.” This meant that a scene had to be rehearsed a lot to find the right composition and camera movement, and to practice moving the camera without looking into the lens. “It was more of a psychological challenge than a physical one, you can’t get discouraged if you mess up a shot.”

Jelenlét will be released in Hungarian cinemas on February 6, 2025, distributed by ADS Service. We’ve already seen the film, and you can read our review here.