At the start of the year, JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray got to check out the Sundance Film Festival premiere of director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp’s ghost story Presence, and in his 7/10 review (which you can read HERE), he described the film as “a supernatural tale that’s light on horror but heavy on heart.” A wider audience will have the chance to see the movie soon after we switch over to our 2025 calendars, as Neon is planning to give Presence a limited theatrical release on January 17th. Neon has already released three teaser trailers for the film, but today a full trailer has made its way online, and you can check it out in the embed above.
The story of Presence gets rolling when a family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they are not alone. A supernatural force has infiltrated the house, and taken a specific interest in the couple’s daughter.
The film stars Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Julia Fox, Eddy Maday, and West Mulholland.
It hasn’t been revealed how much Neon is paid for Presence, but it is known that they came out the winner of a bidding war between “about 10” different interested distributors. So they’re probably forking over “a healthy sum.” Deadline points out that it was “shot entirely in a single location, which creates the haunting mood sought by the filmmakers.” Bumbray’s review informed us that “Soderbergh’s camera is always from the perspective of the presence itself (no one uses the term ghost here), making it an interesting visual exercise. The family is observed from an arm’s length, with us eventually realizing that the presence itself isn’t necessarily malignant, nor is it even aware of why it’s in their home in the first place.”
Julie M. Anderson and Ken Meyer produced Presence, with Koepp serving as an executive producer alongside Corey Bayes. H.H. Cooper co-produced and Gus Gustafson, Samara Levenstein, and Claire Kenny are associate producers.
Are you looking forward to Presence? Watch the full trailer, then let us know by leaving a comment below. Neon has also unveiled a couple new posters, and you can take a look at those while you’re scrolling down: