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. The device allowed the director to maneuver around a suburban house, following the lives of a family and acting as the “presence.”

Portraying the mother of the family is Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels, Red One), with Chris Sullivan (This Is Us, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2) as the father. The shooting technique is different from the usual, and the two actors were prepared during the film’s production.

“I don’t know if it was a piece of cake, but I was ready,” Liu tells Nerd Reactor. “I think we all were. We were geared up, and we wanted to commit to whatever Steven’s vision was. He had a very specific one, and I did not want to disappoint him. I don’t think anyone did.”

With the first-person perspective, that meant longer takes and dynamic camera movements.

“I had an intellectual concept of how this was going to work,” Sullivan added. “But it wasn’t until we were on set that I was like, ‘Oh, oh, right.’ There’s no editing in this movie. There are no cuts between different angles. Because I’ve never worked that way before, and probably never will again, it was definitely a shock to my sense memory of how to make a movie. And it took me the first day of being on set to be like, ‘Okay, this is how this is going to work. Okay, I can figure this out.’ It was certainly unique.”

Portraying the daughter is Callina Liang, who can be seen in last year’s Bad Genius starring Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange).

“I don’t know how to say this without spoiling anything, but basically, there was this one really long scene,” Liang said of one of her favorite moments during principal photography. “A lot of things happened, and it took a lot of things to go right to make it all work. And I just remember that I had to run upstairs, put in earplugs, and continue. Everything was happening, and it was all being shot, and that was just really fun.”

About Presence

Synopsis: A family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone.

The film is directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds). It’s produced by Julie M. Anderson and Ken Meyer. It stars Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, West Mulholland, Eddy Maday, and Julia Fox.

Presence releases in theaters on January 24, 2025.