Writer/director Tom Provost's The Presence is an interesting blend of horror and romance that stars the eternally beautiful Mira Sorvino as a woman who heads off to her family's cabin upon an island in the mountains of Oregon. Completely alone, save for a visit from a kindly old man named Mr. Browman (Muse Watson) who brings her supplies every once on a while, she's there to work on her writing and deal with her past. Molested as a child by her father, she has trust issues and commitment issues and so is both relieved and irritated when her boyfriend (Justin Kirk) shows up to spend some quality time with her.

What neither one of them seem to realize is that they're not as alone as they think they are. There's a ghost in the house (Shane West) who makes himself known by opening and closing doors now and then but who seems to be in love with our heroine. When the boyfriend proposes and she accepts, another spirit turns up and tries to meddle in all of their affairs. As the spirit's obsession intensifies, the woman's psychological damage is brought front and center and her behavior becomes increasingly unsettling.

You've got to give Provost for trying something different with The Presence. What could have easily been a film reliant on jump scares and horror movie clichés instead focuses on the drama that emerges between parties seen and unseen in the house. Starting with a fifteen minute sequence completely devoid of any dialogue whatsoever, we're introduced to Sorvino's character and West's character, who she can't see and who we can. This makes for a few moments of unsettling imagery, the most obvious being when she wakes up in the morning and he's curled up in bed beside her, but it also makes for a few moments that seem overdone in which all West's spirit does is GLARE at her. This carries on into the later part of the film when the boyfriend arrives, at which point he GLARES at both of them. There's lots of glaring going on throughout the first two thirds of the movie and not a whole lot more.

At the same time, the movie holds our interest simply because we want to know where Provost is going with all of this. It reaches an interesting and fairly satisfying conclusion by the time the end credits hit the screen, but be forewarned, this is very much a slow burn movie and it's as much a romantic drama as it is a proper horror picture despite what Lionsgate's packaging would lead you to believe. The film does over do the whole 'ghost is glaring at people' angle quite a bit and this takes away from thing, at times almost making it feel a bit padded but overall the good outweighs the bad here. Mira Sorvino's performance is pretty convincing, she does fine with the dramatic aspects where she lays into her boyfriend and does just as well during the film's quieter moments, of which there are many, where we really just watch her go about her daily routine unaware that she's being watched from the other side. Shane West, made up to look like a corpse to a certain extent, doesn't really get much to say here and so his performance relies almost entirely on body language and facial expressions - aside from those aforementioned moments where it's a little overdone, it works. The third key player, Justin Kirk, is also fine as is Tony Curran in his supporting role (which we won't discuss in order to avoid spoilers).

If viewers are able to stick with it long enough and don't mind the odd pacing and this turns out to be a pretty interesting movie, beautifully shot to get the most out of its gorgeous locations and featuring a great effort from Sorvino.

Video:

The Presence is a very nicely shot film that looks good in this 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation on DVD. Despite the presence of some obvious banding the image is generally strong and detailed and if it doesn't pop off the screen the way a more colorful film might, it reproduces the many earth tones used throughout the movie with a nice realism. You might spot some very minor compression artifacts in a few scenes if you look for them but otherwise there aren't really any quirks to complain about. The image is consistently clean and stable and black levels also fare well.