You Are the Ghost in Steven Soderbergh’s New Haunted House Movie

Last year, In a Violent Nature upended the slasher genre by telling a classic “high body count in the wilderness” tale from the point of view of the lumbering killer. This year, Presence offers a different sort of horror movie perspective shift by telling a haunted house story from the point of view of the ghost. That it’s from the A-list team of director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp makes Presence even more of a curiosity.

Here’s the final trailer for Presence, which stars Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, and Julia Fox.

The voyeuristic, creeping camerawork is obviously a key component in Presence, as the title character—the full description for the movie is simply “a family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone”—lurks and hovers around the family that’s moved onto its turf. This trailer emphasizes the movie’s scary elements and tells us that the ghost is “suffering,” which is never a good quality when the veil’s being pierced.

Unlike other stories of ghost protagonists trying to grapple with living humans suddenly in their midst—think The Others or Beetlejuice—Presence leans into that uncomfortably eerie POV, and from the trailer at least we have no idea what form the spirit takes, or if it even shows itself at all.

This would be an intriguing project no matter what, but coming from Soderbergh (an Oscar winner for directing Traffic, he’s also made films as varied as Erin Brockovich, Contagion, the Ocean’s heist films, and Magic Mike) and Koepp (screenwriter of Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and 2002’s Spider-Man, to name just a few; he’s also directed his share of horror films, including Stir of Echoes and Secret Window) amplifies its potential.

Presence hits theaters January 24. Will you be haunting the aisles to see it?

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.