Sometimes when I'm walking through Blockbuster, I will see the covers of direct-to-DVD movies, and I will admit that I tend to judge them right there. I will look at its poorly photo-shopped cover and laugh at the suckers who will rent this dud. Well, when it comes to The Presence, it turns out I am the sucker. Will The Presence win any Oscars? Not at all. It isn't a perfect film, particularly in regard to pacing, but for those who enjoy unconventional ghost stories, The Presence will be a pleasant surprise.
In The Presence, an unnamed woman (Mira Sorvino) is staying at her family's cabin on an island. She works, listens to old jazz records, and stays inside her head a little too much. There is a man in a white shirt (Shane West) who might be the ghost of a drowned convict, and he watches the woman silently, occasionally putting on her jazz records while she sleeps. When the woman's boyfriend (Justin Kirk) shows up, another spirit appears who takes the form of a man in a black shirt (Tony Curran). The man in black torments the woman by bringing up dark secrets from her past, and he convinces her not to trust her boyfriend. The man in black presents the man in white with a choice. If the man in white kills the woman's boyfriend, then the man in black will give him anything he desires, including the woman.
The plot of the movie only sounds confusing because the movie never names the main characters. In actuality, the plot is very simple, and this works to the film's favor. It all comes down to several moral dilemmas. First, the woman has to decide whether to continue living in the past and distrusting all the men in her life or move forward and allow herself to love and trust someone. Second, the man in white has to decide whether it is more important to cling to the hope of life and be a murderer, or let go of this world and move onto the next. The filmmakers do a great job making these dilemmas interesting and keeping the audience guessing how the film is going to end. Instead of being a straight-forward ghost story, it is a battle against good and evil, and the man in white's soul is as much up in the air as the woman's fate.
I wouldn't say the film is perfect. Pacing is a bit of an issue at the beginning, and the film doesn't really hit its stride until Curran shows up. Even so, it is a great first project for writer and director Tom Provost. He put so much thought and passion into this film, and it shows through in the final product. If anything, the promotions team should be fired for making this look like another run-of-the-mill horror movie when it is really a haunted house story told from the perspective of the ghost.
DVD Bonus Features
Special features include a storyboard commentary with the director and film editor, a making-of featurette, and an additional film commentary with writer/director Tom Provost.
"The Presence" is on sale October 4, 2011 and is rated R. Drama, Horror, Thriller. Written and directed by Tom Provost. Starring Justin Kirk, Mira Sorvino, Shane West, Tony Curran.
