The Presence (2010) User Reviews (65)

I'll stare you to death.

[Someguysomwhere · 3/10 · 23 January 2011]

Woman with personal issues goes to a remote place in the woods somewhere to spend some time alone in the cabin she spent her summers as a child. What she doesn't know is that there is some guy (which we the audience can see) who looks like something between a department store mannequin and crew member of the starship Enterprise haunting the place. He does this by standing and staring or sitting and staring. Maybe about 20 minutes in, or so, he swivels an eyeball to the side. Then about 40 minutes in he becomes less like a mannequin and more like crew member of the Enterprise looking for a way to get back to his ship.

I was intrigued when the movie started and I saw the ghost sitting or standing staring. --Right off the bat; just like that; no preamble; as is usually NOT the case with most ghost stories. "Hmm.....this is a different approach", I say's to myself, "Let's see where it goes". I believe I already told you where it went for 40 minutes. The only thing of note in that time is that the woman's boyfriend shows up a little over 20 minutes in or so. Apparently this woman has issues with trusting men due to the sad examples in her life, her grandfather and father. Anyway, the guy shows up, says he hopes he's not intruding, or something. Then some more stuff that was apparently the right thing and that led to a little huggy-huggy and a little kissy-kissy.

After the 40 minutes --hell way before that-- I began to feel this movie wasn't going to be scary. Why do most people love ghost stories? --Because they want to be spooked, of course! Well you will not be scared by this. If you want to be scared you're better off waiting 'till tax time. This movie is a "relationship" and "personal issues" movie hiding in..er..ghostliness. The ghost business was just a backdrop for it. All it did was make a RELATIONSHIP and PERSONAL ISSUES movie "a little unusual". That's it. Now if you don't mind your ghosts being non-scary and being just a background and vehicle for people sorting out their domestic problems, then this is for you. Just add 3 stars to the 3 I'm giving this thing and run out and go see it. However if you want your ghost to freak you out --like I do, then add 0 to my 3 and go do something else. Love, Boloxxxi.

Genre not totally accurate.

[TheDelBellos · 4/10 · 23 January 2011]

I watched this movie yesterday and was very disappointed. It is definitely not a horror movie, so don't waste your time if your looking for that. Somewhat a thriller, but definitely a drama.

It started out very strange...and boring. I made myself sit and wait to see if it got any better. The first 5 minutes was a waste of time. Still shots of the inside of the house...each room...and they lasted for eternity. It finally found it's way into a "movie". Yes, the acting is great as well as the scenery. I loved the old cabin. It had it's potential to be a very good, scary movie, but it simply lacked that.

There were so many empty holes at several intervals of the movie. The storyline didn't share what was fully going on. No explanation of certain events.

I did watch the entire movie but I could have turned it off at any point as I knew I wasn't going to miss much. If you have nothing else to watch, it's watchable. But if you have an option for another to watch, do so. I would skip this one.

This was a ghost movie?

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 6 February 2011]

"The Presence" was somewhat of an uneventful and uninspiring movie. It had potential, and I was expecting more of a horror movie. But it turned out to be some kind of sappy story with some apparitions thrown into the storyline.

Now, had the movie left out the ghosts and just dealt with the "demons" that were tormenting the woman (played by Mira Sorvino) it would have come off as a much better movie. Just sticking to dealing with the theme of a woman tormented by her father's abuse and trying to escape the past by going into solitude would have made for a much nicer story. I, personally, didn't get the whole idea with the ghosts. Why were the "good" ghost and the "bad" ghosts there? It was serving no major purpose. And then suddenly there was this "redeeming" ghost appearing (Deobai Oparei) like some savior or saint? No, no, no... I just didn't work.

However, what was working for the movie was the scenery and sets. Being set in an isolated area with lots of great nature is always nice. And the touch with no electricity in the place worked nicely as well.

The movie was slow in getting to the point, and it was slowly building up suspense, but it never really climaxed. And when the movie was over, I was left with a "was that really it?" feeling. The movie had potential to be much more than it turned out to be. But hey, I am not the one who wrote it, I just watched it. And having sat through it till the very end, I can honestly say that "The Presence" is a ghost movie that will fade into oblivion without leaving any lasting impression.

Despite having a relatively small list of actors and actresses, the people in the movie were doing a good enough job. It was nice to see Sorvino in a movie like this, but at times it felt like she wasn't giving the performance all 100% of her focus. And Shane West, as the ghost, was doing a good job, especially because he wasn't saying anything, so it was all just body-acting and mimicking.

If you are looking for a horror movie, then you are going to be disappointed with "The Presence". If you are looking for something in a drama/supernatural category, then you might like this movie. I was disappointed with the outcome of the movie, and I can honestly say that this is a movie that I will never be returning to again.

I am rating the movie a low 4 because it failed to impress me and failed to really entertain me. What is keeping the rating 'up' on my behalf is the tormented past-theme that is in the movie, just a shame that it wasn't the focus part of the storyline.

In the tradition of The Haunting

[donaldbryan · 21 October 2011]

That feeling on the back of your neck when you're in the house utterly alone, and it's completely silent

except for

that !

That's how this movie builds on you. It doesn't use gobs of red Karo syrup, and no one flies backward on a wire in front of a green screen. It instead plays on your childhood fears when real things go bump.

The house in which the story unfolds is a character unto itself - beautiful and creepy and very well photographed throughout.

A fun and refreshing ghost story, give it a tumble.

A big disappointment after a good rating

[maz9999-1 · 1/10 · 23 January 2011]

Watched this yesterday after reading good reviews on here, what a disappointment it was, started out very slow but did look like it could develop into a good film . The main "ghost" in the film who is there from the start and the viewer can always see him gets no explanation at all about who he is or where he came from , how he died etc , so when you are waiting for the final scenes of the film, and you do because when you have sat through this drivel you at least want some explanations. But they don't come and we were left with "what the hell was that about " In brief slow, music terrible, story non existent , probably 2 scares throughout and even they were signposted.

Slow, but different

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 25 December 2013]

The first minutes (quite a lot of minutes actually, though I did not count) are completely without any dialog. This seems to work as a silent movie as well. Of course later on, we'll get dialog and we'll get the story going. It is quite original in its theme and what it tries to do. I'd even say it achieves that goal.

Sorvino plays it as good as it gets, but the mentioned pace might feel and lead people into disliking the movie. I wasn't sure at first either. But it's nice seeing something trying to go another route. The cinematography is really good and the sound design fits really good too. We may have some action towards the end, that might feel a bit too much, but it's still true to the nature of the movie.

Slow, progressing through slow and ending slow.

[daedalus_wren0 · 4/10 · 15 April 2015]

It is very unfortunate that I can't like this more. From the start, not knowing a thing about the movie, I was intrigued.

The movie starts out at a nice easy pace. Dim, still images set the backdrop of the story and it never seem to progress much beyond this pace.

Several plot holes and unanswered questions had me questioning the events so much that the story became a lost in the noise.

If you have nothing better to do and you need to fall asleep early, or you just like a story that keeps you guessing with questions that in no way, shape or form could be answered, then this is for you.

It is really too bad, for me it was the lack of concrete answers that really makes me want to forget this story.

Everyone involved should die of embarrassment

[boydwalters · 2/10 · 23 January 2011]

Fact 1 ... The basic concept doesn't work Fact 2 ... Mina Sorvino plays a really annoying premenstrual hag from hell Fact 3 ... Some really dis-likable actor plays her annoying boyfriend Fact 4 ... Half way through another PRESENCE shows up and makes it even more annoying Fact 5 ... It end with one of the most schmaltzy gut churning endings in recent history Good point ... Its only 80 minutes long But I really wouldn't advise wasting those minutes on this garbage Nobody involved in this fiasco should be allowed to work again Oh ... And yes ... That final twist that you know is coming from the boat earlier happens just like in every other bad movie right before the end titles

One of the worst movies i have ever seen

[paulpersic · 1/10 · 21 September 2011]

What i just saw was... oh the worst ghost story i have ever seen, probably the worst movie. Now to be honest, i was interested. I love ghost stories and I probably never saw a bad one until now. I bought this film off some store for a cheap price of 2 bucks and declared my money back. This film is about a woman who goes to a cabin which was one of the places she used to go to for her child hood. NOw she is being stalked by an apparition which does absolutely nothing but stare at her with an angry face. When i was going through it, it seemed it had a bit of a build up i mean what the f**k is that guy even doing there? Well i found nothing at all that was good about the film. There's a guy later who talks to the red faced ghost staring at the woman to death saying "hey! you want this girl eh? well all you have to do is blah blah blah..." NO climax, nothing cool, husband completely useless. I could have made a film like this with probs, 2000$. The ghost (the guy staring at woman to death) was to be honest a pretty damn funny guy i mean, you know I thought at the end he would take a handkerchief wrap it around his face take out a chainsaw and do this climax with a huge pool of blood but no. Literally, all he does is stare.

I try to say at least one thing good about a film but its not good like at all. Save your money, when 2 bucks you can buy it to see a guy stare at a woman for hours, but the best idea is to screw it.

1.6/10 thats generous!

Weird and Uneven Film

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 28 August 2012]

A writer (Mira Sorvino) comes to an isolated cabin in an island that belonged to her father to spend some time writing a book. But there is a ghost (Shane West) trapped in the house stalking her all the time.

Out of the blue, her fiancé (Justin Kirk) arrives in the island and proposes her to get married with him. However, the unstable woman has a trauma from her past since she was abused by her father and she does not intend to raise a family of her own. But there is also an evil spirit (Tony Curran) in the cabin influencing her decisions and driving her crazy with an irrational behavior. Further, the fiend tries to persuade her to kill her fiancée. But an angel (Deobia Oparei) saves not only the couple, but also the soul of the ghost.

"The Presence" is a weird and uneven film, with good points but also with flaws and fake reviews in IMDb promoting the film.

"The Presence" begins with a music score that is a rip-off of "Twilight Zone" and wonderful location and cinematography. Then the film is very boring, and nothing happens with Mira Sorvino and Shane West stalking her in silence for maybe twenty minutes in a lonely cabin.

When her fiancé comes to island, the viewer leans that the character of Mira Sorvino is a troubled woman that was sexually abused by her father when she was a child in the cabin. Therefore there is a huge inconsistency: why she likes to spend time alone in a place with so awful recollections?

The rest of the film is interesting, with the fight between good and evil and the appearance of the black angel to save the woman and her fiancé from the fiend. But why that place is a sort of limbo is never explained in the story. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Presença" ("The Presence")

One of the most boring, dull horror films ever

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 1/10 · 3 April 2013]

Arriving at a secluded cabin to get over the demons of her past, a woman finds the cabin haunted by the ghosts she's running from and tries to stop their torment and control over her when her boyfriend comes to visit.

Quite frankly this is one of the most boring and irritating horror films of all time and ranks as one of the worst all-time. This is aided by the film's complete lack of anything going on here, which tends to feature one of the characters wandering around the house while a ghost looks on silently and immobile the entire time, not reacting to her being there nor doing anything to put the characters in harm's way. That's the whole point here, there's no danger at all to the characters so there's no blood, no gore, no deaths, nor even is there on-screen violence perpetrated against them as the lone act that could've been highly rewarding for what's transpired is done off-screen with the shouts and screams echoing through the landscape, and their tactic of merely whispering their intentions is just plain irksome and generates nothing but loathing at the lack of action. The fact that it takes just under half-an-hour for the first line of dialog to occur should be more than enough to denote what kind of film this is, even with some potentially intriguing scenes later on. The scenery looks gorgeous, the house is creepy and the atmosphere works, but the lack of an intimidating threat and toned-down atmosphere here doom this one.

Rated PG-13: Language.

Different and pretty good

[gary-schiltz · 8/10 · 18 February 2012]

My wife and I just watched it, and I thought it was quite good. It is certainly somewhat of a "chick flick", which probably accounts for many of the negative reviews (I actually don't see why so many guys don't like romantic movies). Now, if you try to make too much sense of it from a rational point of view, then you'll be missing the whole point. On the surface, it's a ghost story, but really it's about a woman struggling to come to terms with the male demons from her past and cast them out. It's kind of like abstract art - it's an emotional piece that amplifies what's inside the viewer. It sort of reminded me of "What Dreams May Come", another favorite of mine. I suggest you give it a shot.

loved it!

[attennessee · 7/10 · 23 April 2020]

I think thoughtful films like this one that grapple with spiritual/metaphysical questions get unfairly dinged when categorized as horror. for horror fans there is a minimal expectation that a film classified as such will deliver scares or white-knuckle tense moments of threat. i didn't feel that with this movie and while the setting makes for a vulnerable isolated feeling i wouldn't call it scary. in fact it offers a gentle humaneness and a grounded measured pace rarely found in current horror flicks. it knows itself well.

i really enjoyed this movie. i loved the setting, the cinematography (the rich colors), the lush property, the editing and the cast -- every single person was great. wonderful opening scenes, great cabin and beautiful, artistically-framed moments of solitude and reflection.

sorvino did a great job. she and kirk worked so well together and even though he has a face i would not trust (lol) i actually began to feel for him as she became more distant and hostile. their arguments felt real and raw without being excessive, cringey or overly-dramatic.

everything was nicely explained too; no loose ends. and i like the treatment of entity influence which i'm pretty sure many people have no idea about. discernment is the key to assessing which voices in one's head bring loving guidance and which ones have evil intent. knowing the difference is important as the ending shows we are all subject to such external influences.

highly recommend if you prefer moody intelligent films over desperate torture porn or gore-fests. 7.5/10

Boring waste of time... Can I give zero stars?

[Adamquinnlv · 1/10 · 7 May 2013]

Spoiler Alert!!!! Spoiler Alert!!!! Spoiler Alert!!!!

Okay, first off this movie sucked. It was a really boring Hitchcock rip off. Including the score... Which was like why? Really? Seriously? Who does that? It's the 21 century a**hole. This movie really tries to be artsy. It is not a horror film, it is not a horror film at all. I loved the place it was filmed and the house had a lot of potential to be something that kept me from ever going into a log cabin. But it was just a huge f*****g waste of time and potential. No talking for the first 20 minutes? The birds flying into the outhouse for no reason...When her boyfriend shows up he d**n near kicks the door down. Who comes in a house like that? The movie never says who the ghost is. I'm guessing it's her father or grandfather. It's so d**n boring. They never tell us any names so I have to say "the guy" and "the lady". Anyway, The guy ask her to marry him and she just stares at him with a wordless stare that looks like someone kicked her in her belly button. She starts being a major c**t to her boyfriend. We find out that she's being haunted by another ghost, or demon, that's talking to her in her ear and telling her all kinds of f*****d up s**t. She's having trust issues... Great story line by the way, a**hole, real creative, because she got raped by her daddy. Sob story. "Oh I have daddy issues! This is my special place that I come to where daddy r***d me when I was a kid and you're ruining it..." WHY THE F**K WOULD YOU GO TO A HOUSE THAT YOUR DAD R****D YOU IN TO "GET AWAY"??? Then the ghost, who wears all black, tries to corrupt the ghost in white. And we still have no f*****g clue or information about him. He just stands there...staring, with a look on his face like he was actually watching this movie itself. The ending was anti climatic. I won't give it away but it involves another ghost....The scariest thing about this movie is the thought of having to crap outside in an outhouse. Don't watch it. Trust me.

No happy about being censored by IMDb but screw it...

Rare unique storyline

[soberlyf · 24 January 2011]

I'll be brief on this one, it's just over a middle of the road film but absolutely worth one turn. Mira Sorvino does a fine job as the protagonist, well, one of 3 in the story. Shane West takes a role that would appear simple to play and adds subtlety to it that it would have fallen flat had he not.Tony Curren as a dark angel of sorts is delightfully wicked, but the guy from "Weeds" is completely milk-toast and someone we're meant to admire as a good man comes off as a "girly-man", spineless and one dimensional. It's billed essentially as a love story/ghost tale and his inability to tow the line takes the love story off the table and we were left with the ghost tale, however, Curren and Shane West make certain that aspect of the film saves the movie. It was a nice way to spend 90 min

Wonderful movie...............if you enjoy being bored out of your mind

[daletheminoltaman · 1/10 · 9 December 2011]

Wonderful movie...............if you enjoy being bored out of your mind. If you love watching grass grow, watching paint dry then you will LOVE this movie! However if you have a pulse and the smallest hint of a personality then I would stay away from this snoozer. There is nothing interesting what so ever about a ghost that stares.

Stupid, boring and extremely lame. If you had this ghost in your house, you would live in fear. In fear of being bored out of your mind by it, irritated at it staring at anything and everything. Take a sharpie, draw a pair of eyes on a white wall and there you go, the plot of this movie. You will have something every bit as entertaining as this movie.

Beautiful start, but fatally flawed ending.

[scchu362 · 3/10 · 10 February 2014]

The film does have some strong points, but concludes in a fatally flawed ending. The cinematography and scenery were beautiful. However, the characters' relationship remains quite 'cold' and fraught. Thus, it can hardly qualify to be called romantic. It was, instead, a small scale exploration of how a woman with psychological trauma deals with the possibilities of a new relationship. On that count, it did quite well. The unknown nature of the apparition also played well through the first half of the film until it ended in a Faustian twist. Unfortunately, the film went downhill from there. There was no more suspense to sustain the viewer's interest. But worst of all is the Deus ex Machina ending. It left me feeling cheated and provides no sense of resolution. Is the filmmaker trying to say that the only path to healing is through a divine intervention? Are we nothing but playthings of higher powers or film auteurs?

Weird unexplained ghost story

[gypjet-1 · 5/10 · 30 March 2013]

I'm giving this movie a 5. As other reviewers have stated, it was beautiful, filmed in Oregon with all that natural scenery as a backdrop. However,the director tried to hard to make it artsy fartsy.

We have large stretches of no dialogue and the characters staring off into space. We have zero explanation of why this girl is important enough to have both an angel and a demon in her life, and even though we get the idea her father was abusive sexually and physically; we have no explanation of who the ghost is. Is it her father? Is that why he needs to ask for forgiveness to receive redemption? Nothing in the story is there to support or refute it.

Another point lacking explanation is the bizarre outhouse. Why does a bird kill itself against it every time she enters? What was beating on it when the boyfriend went in? Is this the spot the abuse took place? Zero explanation. It felt like a random scare to make this seem more like a ghost story! Poor storytelling.

Anyway, my complaint is that although the director understood the visual aspect of story telling, he forgot the story part. So 5 points for a beautiful cinematography, zero points for plot/characterization.

Not worth watching at all

[johanna-kinnvall · 1/10 · 7 July 2012]

No matter how bored you are, this movie will make you even more bored. You'll have to watch 18 minutes in to actually hear someone speak. Some movies are quiet in a good way, this one just plainly sucks. How it can call itself a horror film stuns me, since you have non - whatsoever empathy for the characters.

The only thing that is good about this movie is the Shane Wests (the, I guess, ghost?) make up and acting, but that gets destroyed since he doesn't do or say anything! At one point he screams, and since this is so uneventful, I am now wondering if that is a spoiler.

Don't watch this. It's so bad that it isn't even fun. You will regret it.

Bad

[kaylabrowder · 1/10 · 21 December 2011]

My time felt wasted on this movie no lines during the first half and you have no idea whats going on. It shouldn't be listed as a Ghost movie should be listed as a family drama. It should not be 4 out of 10 should be 2 because of the actor even though he only has 2 words he says through the whole movie. I expected to have a scary movie night but I completely had a comedy night I even laughed when the main character screamed. It was boring I was seriously falling asleep and I'm not even old. It looked like the movie budget was 7 dollars by film students. Get it out of the redbox so other people won't make the same mistake I did. Over all don't waste your time renting this please don't ever buy it either. Waste of time.

In the shadow of Mount Hood.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 5 February 2011]

I wanted to see "The Presence" by Tom Provost mainly for two reasons:to see Mira "Mimic" Sorvino and Mount Hood volcano.Unfortunately Mount Hood is only shown in a distant background.Mira Sorvino plays a troubled woman who goes to a cabin near Mount Hood.There is mannequin-like ghost in the cabin with her."The Presence" quickly turns into relationship drama with no horror whatsoever.It seems that Mira is fighting her demons regarding her boyfriend and the mannequin-like ghost desires her.Suddenly bad ghost appears and tries to turn good ghost into evil presence.The good ghost rejects the evil and thus is saved by God or another good spirit."The Presence" deals with the theme of temptation and is quite unique,but the lack of horror is disappointing.Still I'd give this one a generous 6 out of 10.

Laughably bad

[michaeldlane · 1/10 · 8 June 2013]

This feels like a film with a lot less money than they must have had, given that the cast includes Justin Kirk and Mira Sorvino. The camera work is remarkably amateurish, save the rare shot that any film fan can quickly recognize as directly lifted from other movies. Inappropriately scored, too, with sappy, upbeat romantic comedy music playing behind scenes that are meant to be chilling. Plot-wise, it's full of holes, leaving much unexplained. I wouldn't call it boring -- I was mesmerized, in fact, but for the wrong reason; I really still can't believe how bad this movie is. Felt like I needed a shower afterward to wash the stench of it off of me. Watch this movie with discerning film fans for a fun point-and-laugh experience.

Wonderfully original ghost story

[sallymom34 · 10/10 · 13 April 2011]

I recently caught this beautiful film at the Dallas Film Festival. The response of the crowd was certainly different from some of the reviews here. The audience loved the movie, which was evident not only by the response during the movie but during the Q&A after the movie with the director. I went with three other people and while our reaction in some ways was split - two of us loved the opening, which is very quiet, very still and two were not as fond of the opening section as they were the rest of the movie - by the end all of us found the movie very creepy and thought-provoking. Some people in the audience, including one of our group, cried at the end. We all had different interpretations of what was going on. We found the ambiguity in the movie very refreshing. Finally a movie that asks the audience to participate and think! Subsequently I am befuddled by some of the reviews here. I guess some people were expecting a horror movie but the movie is not a horror movie. The director, while noting that the production team has had a hard time labeling the movie, given it is so different from the norm, did call it a Gothic romance. One of my friends thought it was a twisted fairy tale. It certainly is lushly photographed and the score we all thought was incredible. I don't want to give away too much but if you are in the mood for a creepy, tense yet someone romantic twist on a traditional ghost story, and you don't mind being asked to think, this is an excellent film. People always seen to complain about Hollywood making the same type of movies over and over. This definitely is not the same old thing!

The premise doesn't really work....

[MarieGabrielle · 6/10 · 3 March 2012]

This could have been a decent story, but was under-developed and wastes the audiences time. It starts out interesting enough, with Mira Sorvino as an introverted writer, returning to a deserted cabin she grew up in. The photography is good, and a bit intriguing. Soundtrack reminiscent of a twilight zone episode of foreboding.

Enter Justin Kirk the boyfriend. He wants to be there for her, but she is preoccupied. Seems an evil spirit is influencing her to discard the boyfriend. A victim of childhood abuse, she now obsesses on the fact that all men will be the same, the relationship will not work.

There is a brief accident wherein the boyfriend almost falls off a cliff, the engagement ring he has for her is temporarily lost.

The "staring spirit" in limbo who resides in the house is apparently prey for the evil spirit.

Overall, if the characters were more developed this story could have worked, but we do not relate to this odd assembly of characters with no name.

Too many cheap plots revolving around God and miracles lately, and the other film I viewed with this was "The Visitation" with Kelly Lynch and a town that sees Jesus. Cheap and obvious story lines. The audience deserves better. That said this film is okay and better than "The Visitation" as it doesn't go over the top with hysteria and science fiction. Recommended if you are bored. 6/10.

A mystery thriller that takes place in a secluded cabin, but anything that could go wrong does.

[jeremy-928-938732 · 5/10 · 10 October 2011]

This was certainly a thriller movie. It has a great sense of mystique and mystery to it along with a beautiful score. A quiet secluded setting is always appreciated, but does that make it a good movie?

The movie starts out very slow. It takes almost 1/3 of the movie before anything scary happens. Anything before that just feels mysterious. The acting isn't top notch, but with so few characters, this movie feels like a really long student movie project. Lots of characters doesn't necessarily mean it's a good movie and that is where The Presence gets an A+ in my book.

The pace of the movie is very slow, it feels like this two hour flick could have been done in 45 minutes. But for a modern scary movie this does some justice, but there is a lot of improvement and creativity that could have made this film exceptional, but I guess with a limited budget, there is only so much you can do.

I give this a 5/10, decent story, mysterious characters, but excruciatingly slow pace.