Presence: A ghost story that needed a trigger warning?

When the teaser trailer for Presence was released, I wondered what kind of horror movie it would be. The brief synopsis brought to mind Poltergeist: “A family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone.”

I’d forgotten about wanting to see it until I spotted it in a plane’s movie offerings on a long-haul flight back from one of our jaunts earlier this year. Of course, I watched it. More like suffered through it. Until it got to the end, and my heart absolutely shattered.

As of June 3, it’s now available on Hulu. Since it doesn’t come with a trigger warning, I figure I’d share my thoughts about why it needs one. Suffice it to say, I’ll also warn you that spoilers are ahead. But not until the very end. First, let’s analyze the review excerpts used to promote the movie in its final trailer.

Presence Review Excerpts

The first one that jumped out at me came from But Why Tho? It described Presence as “a uniquely haunting ghost story.” That’s pretty accurate once you’ve seen the whole movie.

The next one Neon’s press folks used to hype the movie came from Dread Central, which declared that Presence “flips the haunted house genre on its head.” It was immediately followed by “…then leaves your heart on the floor” from Bloody Disgusting. Both of those are also accurate.

Then came two excerpts that I completely disagreed with. I can’t fathom how either of these outlets saw fit to include such words in their reviews. The first came from Vulture, which called Presence a “spellbinding horror film.” Spellbinding? What kind of movies do they normally watch?

Awards Watch said it’s “one of the scariest movies you’ll see this year.” Scary? Seriously? Nope. Then again, my scare factor threshold is pretty high. Not to mention desensitized.

However, I will say the special effects team deployed some pretty creative and convincing visuals we haven’t seen in other ghost story movies. But you have to wait very patiently and watch very closely to savor those treats.

Presence Casting

The cast was superb. I mean, does Lucy Liu ever not nail it? She stars as the matriarch of the family. The way she favored her son and derided her daughter could’ve used a trigger warning for any ladies who grew up in such a household. Chris Sullivan (This Is Us) nailed the affable and sympathetic dad.

Newcomer Eddy Maday pulled off the arrogant jock brother and apple of his mother’s eye in his debut movie performance. Likewise, Callina Liang (Tell Me Everything, Bad Genius) shone as the stereotypical sullen teenage girl.

Speaking of stereotypical, at first, it seemed like Presence was shaping up to be a stereotypical ghost story centered on Liang’s character, Chloe. You know. A family with a teenage daughter moves into a new house. Her hormones trigger a presence inside to act out. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Nope. Presence toyed with that familiar ghost story trope, but added a twist that was nothing less than shocking.

What Made Presence Such a Unique Ghost Story

There was a Poltergeist-like aspect to Presence. Something was in the house watching the family, making its presence known. However, Neon could have really benefited from including “slow burn” in any of the movie’s descriptions. Then again, that might have put off a significant portion of their target audience.

However, the slow burn aspect is one of the things that contributes to Presence being such a unique ghost story. Yet, it’s not a storytelling style that suits everyone, and it’s incredibly challenging to execute effectively when paired with a horror movie. Although if you’re going to deploy it on any horror subgenre, the one that makes the most sense is perhaps a haunted house ghost story.

I nodded off three times trying to get to the end, but I kept waking up at the end when the action started happening. Since excitement was pretty much non-existent through 90% of the movie, I rewound and was rewarded by the spectacular ending.

Haunting. Heartbreaking. Heartwrenching. (Now that’s a review excerpt that really would’ve summed it up: “A hauntingly heartbreaking slow burn.”)

So what happened? Here’s where to stop reading to avoid spoilers.

Why Presence Was a Ghost Story That Needed a Trigger Warning

These days, trigger warnings are pretty common. Did Presence need one? Some might argue no. Others may have appreciated one. It dealt with some pretty heavy topics, including drugs, rape, misogyny, and bullying.

Throughout the movie, the parents allude to the drug overdose of one of Chloe’s best friends, Nadia. Was it accidental or suicide? Did a nude photo of Nadia that appeared on the Internet have anything to do with why she was using drugs? Is that why she may have intentionally overdosed?

We find out later that Tyler (Maday) was sort of responsible for Nadia’s nude photo getting out. Sort of. He didn’t mean it to happen, though.

Nadia wasn’t the only overdose victim, though. Anorther of Chloe’s friend died that way too. Was it a bad batch of drugs? Can they keep Chloe from making the same mistake?

All through the movie, our focus is on Chloe’s mental state. She’s clearly depressed and mourning her dead friends. But then she finds comfort in Ryan, a popular, rich kid who becomes besties with her brother and also her boyfriend.

Except, Ryan isn’t at all he seems. He purposely murdered the other girls, making it look like accidental overdoses. It seems he has the same fate in mind for Chloe. While hanging out with Tyler and Chloe one night, he slips something in both of their drinks. While Tyler is out of it downstairs, he leads Chloe up to her room.

Luckily, Tyler comes to, figures out what’s happening, and rushes up the stairs to find Ryan straddling a comatose Chloe. In a rare display of brotherly affection, he tackles Tyler, but they both go sailing through the window, crash to the ground below, and die.

It’s not often I don’t see the twist coming. This one smacked me upside the head. Instantly, the implications of such a turn of events hit my heart. One that Liu manifests in a gut-wrenching wail at the end of the movie.

There’s no way they can remain in the house after all that. She does one final walkthrough of the empty house, stopping to look in an old mirror that came with the property. She spies Tyler staring back at her and loses it.

Ugh. That’s one of those scenes that will remain with me the rest of my days. What about you? Have you seen Presence? Did you think it needed a trigger warning, too?

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