Presence
Neon | Release Date: January 24, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 53 Critic Reviews
Positive:
45
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerJan 22, 2025
The scope of Presence remains small and intimate throughout, in a way that really makes you appreciate Soderbergh’s craft, especially his attention to detail. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyDevan CogganJan 21, 2024
As haunted house stories go, Presence is more interested in lurking dread than bloody jump scares, slowly ratcheting up the tension with long, uninterrupted takes. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisJan 23, 2025
Presence is another ideal trap to trip for a filmmaker who enjoys challenges and changing it up artistically as much as Soderbergh does. Read full review
90
Film ThreatMichael Talbot-HaynesJan 22, 2025
Soderbergh does the whole movie in long takes using a wide-angle steady-cam setup. It is a situation fertile for great acting, as the long shots allow these performers to really inhabit their characters. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJan 30, 2024
If the genre trappings seem familiar, it’s the prowling, ghostlike vantage of the camera that makes all the difference: Soderbergh has elected to tell this haunted-house story entirely from the perspective of the haunter. Shooting in wide-angled long takes that range in tenor from voyeuristic languor to nerve-shredding anxiety, he transforms a domestic horror exercise into another Soderberghian tour de force. Read full review
90
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaJan 25, 2024
With a playful camera that rushes through space and embodies a ghostly spirit, Steven Soderbergh’s resourceful haunted house thriller is a midnight genre romp. Read full review
90
SlashfilmBill BriaJan 25, 2024
When Presence delves into the more typical trappings of the genre — everything from a scene where a psychic investigates the house to moments of seance-like invocation — it still retains its unique voice, thanks not just to Soderbergh but Koepp. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 20, 2024
Presence isn’t afraid to be narratively predictable, because it’s out there visually. It’s an art film that also works as a spellbinding horror film, and it might be the best thing Soderbergh has done in ages. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 20, 2024
This is an enormously satisfying watch for haunted house movie fans, favoring sustained anxiety over big scares and practical effects over digital trickery. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJan 24, 2025
Suffice to say that in the end, “Presence” is less of a horror movie or even a traditional ghost story than a drama about personal morality, responsibility, self-inquiry, and personal evolution, told from the perspective of someone who’s not alive anymore. Read full review
88
Washington PostTy BurrJan 23, 2025
Best of all, “Presence” is short and sure of itself, a tidy 84 minutes that explore a fraying family dynamic as observed by the household poltergeist. Read full review
86
Paste MagazineJamie ArenaFeb 13, 2024
Penned by David Koepp, who previously wrote Soderbergh’s tight and thrilling chamber piece Kimi, Presence is a darkly comic and slow-burn genre film that presents as both a haunted house tale and an exploration of a strained family dynamic—shown entirely through the perspective of its ghost. Read full review
85
Film ThreatCalan PanchooMar 13, 2025
Presence’s great strength is not in the exquisiteness of its detail but in its quietness, its delicate vision. Read full review
85
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeJan 24, 2025
The brilliant camera work and editing (both by Soderbergh, under his usual pseudonyms) and Koepp’s tersely insightful writing ratchet up the tension, as the audience and, eventually, the characters figure out just what’s going on in this seemingly ideal house. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 20, 2024
The director’s latest is a distinctly cool, dynamic Soderbergian riff on Michael Powell’s "Peeping Tom" via "The Haunting," with a dash of "Paranormal Activity" sprinkled around its edges. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJan 23, 2025
Presence has the story, limited scope, and 85-minute runtime of a 1940s B-picture, infused—as those pictures often were, and as his crime movies usually are—with a disciplined style and contemporary electricity. It’s budget Gothic that’s worth every penny and then some. Read full review
83
Original-CinThom ErnstJan 21, 2025
It’s a ghost story, a minor entry in Soderbergh’s oeuvre but still worthy of attention. Read full review
83
The PlaylistMarshall ShafferJan 21, 2024
As the film progresses, the decoding moves beyond just camera positioning and movement. Soderbergh understands that the real value in following a strict set of rules is breaking them to startling effect. Read full review
83
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 20, 2024
Weaving in skillfully employed, grounded visual effects, it’s rather shocking just how much the ghost, sight unseen, feels like another character in the movie. Read full review
82
PolygonTasha RobinsonJan 27, 2025
Presence is more intellectual than visceral, more engaged with raising questions than pinning viewers to their seats. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekJan 27, 2025
Presence follows you home, long after the camera has stopped rolling. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJan 27, 2025
Presence’s greatest feat, and presumably Soderbergh’s main interest in the project, is in how alive and defined a character our ghost is. Read full review
80
Little White LiesManuela LazicJan 24, 2025
Soderbergh’s enjoyably swift chiller demonstrates genuine curiosity towards its occupiers and the choices they make through difficult circumstances. Read full review
80
ABC NewsPeter TraversJan 24, 2025
In this shivery ghost story, director-editor-DP Steven Soderbergh proves a rich imagination can work wonders on a low budget and turn the familiar into something fresh and frightening. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJan 23, 2025
The plot is so cleverly constructed that its undertones sneak up on you. Their subtlety makes them that much more effective. Read full review
80
Time OutOlly RichardsJan 22, 2025
This is very effective, experimental filmmaking – and at 85 minutes it never becomes indulgent – and the most exciting thing Soderbergh’s done in quite some time. Read full review
80
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 22, 2025
Deeply playful while never falling for the more hoary tendencies of the genre – remarkably, Soderbergh seems to have invented a new way of filming a “jump scare” here – Presence keeps its audience close and tight, building to a finale that forces you to reconsider the entire experiment. Read full review
80
EmpireIana MurrayJan 21, 2025
Steven Soderbergh’s first-person experiment is a gamble that pays off massively. This is an eerie family drama that turns the horror genre inside out and infuses it with greater empathy. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 17, 2025
Soderbergh’s premise is no mere gimmick. Working with a script by David Koepp, he infuses his dramatic mechanism with substantial themes. Read full review
80
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonJan 25, 2024
Without relying on cheap jump scares, Soderbergh’s psychological horror thriller is a shattering mystery about instinct that will chill you. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 20, 2024
While the dizzying, dazzling cinematography, self-shot under his usual D.P. pseudonym Peter Andrews, demands you pay attention to the technical virtuosity, that gambit (or gimmick — your call) is merely setting the table for something else. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 20, 2024
The film proves to be a sleek, efficient exercise, with Soderbergh riffing on the conventions of the haunted-house thriller while applying intelligence and technical mastery. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 30, 2025
Soderbergh, who serves as editor, cinematographer, and director, gets significant mileage out of the visual conceit alone. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 24, 2025
Its blend of mystery, suspense, chills and pathos are perfectly pitched. Presence is simply sublime. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 23, 2025
The movie operates with a nicely unpredictable rhythm, both short and longer shots ending abruptly, sometimes comically, popping us into the next one. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 22, 2025
Everything we witness in this film is literally seen through the point of view of a spectral presence, but it’s the machinations of a deeply dysfunctional nuclear family that makes it all so intriguing. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJan 22, 2025
The camera is the ghost in Steven Soderbergh’s chillingly effective, experiential haunted house drama “Presence.” Read full review
70
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 27, 2025
Presence, like much of the director’s recent work, is less an entrée than a charming apéritif, albeit with a couple of smart twists worth ruminating on. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonJan 23, 2025
Presence is being sold as a ghost story, but it’s more like a family drama disguised under a sheet. The eye holes are the only thing separating it from a thousand other ordinary little films about the injuries people do to those they love. Otherwise, the story doesn’t have enough flesh on its bones to hold our interest. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMarco Vito OddoJan 15, 2025
While 'Presence' may not deliver traditional horror scares, Soderbergh's innovative ghost's-eye-view approach and strong performances create an intriguing supernatural drama that prioritizes technical brilliance over frights. Read full review
70
ColliderRoss BonaimeJan 20, 2024
Told from the perspective of a “presence” in a house, Soderbergh explores this type of horror story in a way that only he can, playing with the structure of similar films, screwing with our expectations for this type of film, and once more, testing himself while showing the untapped potential in the genre. Read full review
70
TheWrapJan 20, 2024
Each time we are thrown into something new, the film teases out moments of humor built around the family’s dysfunction just as it draws out a growing feeling that something bad is coming. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJan 23, 2025
Both Koepp and Soderbergh are to blame for the underdelivery of a pivotal, plot-defining, single line of dialogue that should have been a strand woven throughout the film. Read full review
67
IndieWireKatie RifeJan 20, 2024
The problem is that, while the film is conceptually solid, its story gets shakier as it goes along. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesKatie WalshJan 23, 2025
Koepp is one of the most successful screenwriters of all time, and Presence feels like one of the screenplays from his discard pile that Soderbergh scooped up for a quickie experiment. The experiment was indeed successful, but the story itself isn’t. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 27, 2025
The element that makes this intriguing – the ghost POV shooting technique – is also a problem, undermining the suspense and distancing the audience from the vulnerable girl whose fate is in the balance. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyJan 24, 2025
We’re never properly spooked. The presence, ironically, lacks presence. An excellent cast and flashy film-making ensure we are entertained, nonetheless. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 22, 2025
It is well-acted, disciplined and intimate as a play. But for me it is marred by an early, unsubtle moment of overt supernatural creepiness, which signals a retreat from ingenuity and restraint. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 22, 2024
Soderbergh operating at a lower level is still higher than many of his peers. Presence just never fully comes together in the way we hope, a ghost story haunted more by the possibility of what it could have been. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 20, 2024
You want the movie to add up to something, but what it adds up to is another half-diverting, half-satisfying Soderbergh bauble, only this time he’s the ghost in the machine. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMark HansonSep 9, 2024
The unoriginality of Presence’s story eventually calls out the POV conceit as a one-note gimmick, especially when the tension is dialed up in the film’s second half. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJan 24, 2024
Presence is a brisk 85 minutes, which is nice if you have dinner plans, but it also exposes limited storytelling ambitions. It’s a mid-season episode of TV. We don’t get to know much about the characters, and don’t care either way about their fate. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedFeb 11, 2025
It’s hard to label a film this empty, but the word “worthless” comes to mind instantly. Read full review
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