Over Zoom I spoke to Koepp about writing within the confines of the film’s single point-of-view, the value of what’s left out of a story, dreams and screenwriting, and his thoughts on the business of screenwriting today. Presence opens January 24, 2025 from NEON.

I need to be scared of something,” Steven Soderbergh tells me as we sit down to discuss his new film, Presence. “Every movie that I have worked on, there’s gotta be a pocket of fear about some aspect of it.

The entire film is shot entirely from the ghost's point of view, the audience haunting a family that has recently moved into a New Jersey home, not realizing that something was already living there. Critic Sean Burns says it's a great gimmick,

Steven Soderbergh often applies his brainy, process-based approach to new genres; with Presence, he tries his hand at ghost-story horror.

The writer teams with Steven Soderbergh on this haunting story with a twist: The entire film is shot from the point-of-view of the ghost.

Steven Soderbergh's "Presence" is an unconventional haunted house story told from the perspective of the ghost -- and we've got the details.

The tingly thriller “Presence” starts with a knockout premise: What if you told a ghost story from the perspective of the ghost? Each scene in Steven Soderbergh’s impeccably crafted film is a single take that glides silently from room to room observing what happens in an ordinary suburban house.

Over the course of his nearly four-decade career, Steven Soderbergh has just about done it all—including, now, made a horror film. Presence is a ghost story like no other, assuming the first-person perspective of a specter that haunts a suburban clan that’s moved into its residence.

We see the action unfold only from the point of view of the mysterious titular entity – a neat idea, but where are the chills?

What makes “Presence” interesting is its point-of-view “gimmick.” It’s just the story that’s being told that’s somewhat hacky.

Presence holds its audience close with a nifty conceit in which Soderbergh is the eyes and ears of those watching and of his cast. May the adventurous, restless filmmaker keep on tinkering

Steven Soderbergh’s directorial credits include Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven, and Magic Mike. His latest, Presence, is a supernatural thriller shot entirely in the first-person perspective using a Sony Alpha 9 III mirrorless camera.