darad

I can't remember the last time I felt this misled by a horror film's premise. Presence is supposedly about a family moving into a haunted house - but what you get instead is a meandering, painfully dull exercise in how not to make a horror movie. Even the usually dependable Lucy Liu seems adrift here, trying to inject life into a script that's dead on arrival.

The acting is uniformly awful, but the standout (in the worst way) is the actor playing the son. His forced swagger, cringe-inducing overuse of profanity, and laughable attempts to come off as "cool" are not only distracting - they're unbearable. I found myself more annoyed than scared, and that's saying something for a ghost story.

The movie tries to be artsy with its "minimal cuts" concept, but it fails spectacularly. What should build tension just drags and drags, turning what could have been an eerie experience into a slow, plodding bore. The pacing is glacial, the scares are nonexistent, and the entire thing plays like a film school experiment gone terribly wrong.

There's no suspense, no payoff, and no reason to watch this mess. Presence? More like Absence - of talent, direction, and any trace of actual horror.

While the film delivers moments of undeniable entertainment, it ultimately overstays its welcome with an overstretched runtime that tests the audience's patience. The narrative feels overstuffed, leaning heavily on formulaic CGI and an excessive reliance on KISS's "I Was Made For Loving You," played to the point of absurdity. One begins to wonder if the band was underwriting the production. That said, the film's heartfelt tribute to the unsung heroes of cinema-the stunt performers who risk life and limb to inject authentic thrills into our screens-is commendable. However, this homage is overshadowed by a disjointed plot that feels hastily assembled and lacks cohesion. The film's ambition is evident, but its scattered execution diminishes its overall impact, leaving the viewer both impressed and exasperated.