GoMovieReview Rating: ★★★
Rated: MA15+
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Written by: David Koepp
Produced by: Julie M. Anderson, Ken Meyer
Starring: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Julia Fox, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland.
‘What was it like, do you think?’
Filmed from the point of view of the presence, there’s a perspective of looking out a window to then turn inside a house, to wander the empty rooms.
A family of husband and wife, and two teenaged children arrive.
The mother, Rebekah (Lucy Liu) is the decision maker of the family. She makes an offer on the house.
The daughter, Chloe (Callina Liang) asks, ‘Does anyone else get a vote?’
Chloe looks towards the screen, the camera, towards the presence, knowing something is in the house.
She calls out, ‘Nadia?’ Wondering if her recently deceased best friend has returned.
The family don’t believe Chloe, her brother Tyler (Eddy Maday) angry, not wanting Chloe to ruin his cool at school with Ryan (West Mulholland) now his friend.
And then Chloe’s boyfriend.
Talking about her best friend dying, Eddy asks, ‘What was it like, do you think?’
‘I have no idea.’
The beginning of the film is silent.
The dialogue the soundtrack so it feels like a stage production.
The presence attached to the house means the film is entirely filmed in the house so the storyline is the interactions between the family, that’s slowly falling apart.
‘It’s OK to go too far for the people you love,’ says Rebekah to her favourite, her son Tyler.
The father, Chris (Chris Sullivan), tries to keep an eye on Chloe as she grieves.
But it’s the presence who sees everything.
This is a stark film that took a while to become something creepy, not because of the ghost aspect, but the quiet build of something not right.
It’s a unique device, using a subjective camera as point of view for the presence, director Steven Soderbergh states: ‘We want to see the reaction of the character that we’re supposed to invest in. And I’ve been convinced you don’t have a movie if you don’t have that — if you can’t see what the character’s feeling emotionally, you don’t have a movie. But here I am literally tearing down the structure that I’ve built. And my only justification is: Here, if you did a reverse, there wouldn’t be anything to see.’
There’s success with this unusual perspective because the strong performance from each character makes the presence believable.
Using the subjective camera within one location is the foundation of the film. Writer Koepp states,’ I love a restriction. “It’s 24 hours.” Or “it’s one long road trip.” Or, in this case, “It’s all in the same house,” It’s a sort of creative Hays Code that restricts your thinking and therefore opens up your thinking.’
It’s just not a vastly entertaining film. I’d even go as far as saying the first half of the film was boring. But then it becomes something else like an underlying need for control. It creeps up.
Worth a watch.
