In the wake of Netflix acquiring It’s What’s Inside out of Sundance 2024, another hot genre movie that world premiered at Sundance has found itself a distribution home this week.
Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence has been acquired by NEON, with Deadline first reporting the news. The site notes, “I haven’t got a deal number to share, but there were about 10 bidders so it’s a healthy sum for a thriller that has gotten uniformly strong reviews at the festival.”
One of those strong reviews came from Meagan Navarro right here on Bloody Disgusting, who awarded Presence 4 stars out of a possible 5 stars in her review published over the weekend.
Meagan raves, “Unsane director Steven Soderbergh reunites with Kimi screenwriter David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) to give an innovative new spin on the quintessential ghost story. Presence frames its haunted events entirely from the perspective of its ghost. From the opening frame until the end credits, audiences see the thrilling story unfold through chilling narrative twists via Soderbergh’s experimentation with form and technique. Using the camera’s gaze as the ghost’s observing eyes isn’t the only trick up Soderbergh and Koepp’s sleeves, ensuring this exciting shakeup of the haunted house keeps you guessing.”
“Presence gives a contemporary, innovative new spin on the haunted house format that bypasses the well-trodden path to instead create scares of a different nature,” Meagan’s review continues. “Combined with Koepp’s twisty script, Presence pulls you in, terrifies you, then leaves your heart on the floor. This ghost story doesn’t scare in the conventional sense, but it’s an innovative and grim nail-biter with more on its mind than the logline suggests.”
The logline, you ask? Here it is, via Deadline…
“In Presence, 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.
Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Julia Fox, Eddy Maday and West Mulholland star.
The post ‘Presence’ – Steven Soderbergh’s Acclaimed Haunted House Movie Finds a Home at NEON appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.