[Event Review] Popcorn Frights Film Festival: Presence (2022)

This year, Popcorn Frights Film Festival features Christian Schultz’s Presence (2022), a methodical and spooky character study about trust and friendship. 

Jen (Jenna Lyng Adams) and Sam (Alexandria DeBerry) are best friends who moved to New York City to pursue their dreams. Jen has a patent on a kind of zipper, and Sam planned to help her sell it. Their business hasn’t been going well though, and Jen is experiencing some mental health problems, including panic attacks. Sam sends Jen away to get some help and take some rest, but it doesn’t seem to be helping. Jen is as miserable as ever, and worse still, she hasn't heard from Sam in weeks. Her ex-boyfriend, Keaton, shows up and makes trouble, getting into a bar fight and crashing at her place. Jen is not feeling happy or stable, and she keeps seeing a figure out of the corner of her eye.

Then suddenly, she hears from Sam, who met a “super successful guy” (David, played by Dave Davis) who wants to sign a contract with them, after sailing on his yacht to Puerto Rico. Sam sends a car to get Jen, and they are off on a multi-day, international waters sea voyage with a practical stranger. Jen’s problems intensify on the boat, she is losing Sam’s support, and she has nowhere to turn for help.

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Because horror films have been using the framing device of “is this paranormal or is this mental illness” for years at this point, it’s refreshing when a film puts a new spin on it. Presence does not feel like a copycat of films that may have similar descriptions. It’s a tightly contained story, since most of it takes place with three main characters on a ship. The audience is aligned with Jen, in her POV, through her experience of events, and also by being the most relatable and sympathetic character. Sometimes, Jen loses time, or can’t tell dreams from reality, and isn’t sure what’s been happening around her. The editing enhances her panic attacks and memory loss, and the audience is as unsure of what Jen has done as she is for most of the film. The presence she sees is frightening, and it becomes clearer as the film goes on. Just enough is shown to the audience, and enough is left to our imagination to fill in the blanks with our own fears. 

The story is a mystery, to both Jen and the audience, and it takes its time to unfold.  It keeps the viewer guessing and wondering who to trust and who to cheer for. Presence delivers scares and suspense throughout, and it pays off in the end.

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