User Reviews

This ghost movie was a very generic one, to be bluntly honest.

And apparently director and writer Daniele Grieco believed that having doors slam, and having camera periodically go out of focus, and have some really annoying and continuous loud banging sound qualify as being scary components for making the perfect ghost movie. However that was not the case, and it was annoying at best, but not scary!

This was low budget in every sense, but I will still say that they managed fair enough on that account. But from an entertainment point of view, then "Die Präsenz" failed to impress.

The acting in this low budget paranormal horror movie was adequate.

Don't be discouraged by the German language. Who knows, you might actually get some enjoyment from this movie.

I'm very much in favor of sampling new cinema of one's favorite genre, as I believe titles from outside of the cookie-cutter Hollywood industry often bring splendid innovations to the table. While I've always found it slightly more difficult to connect with foreign language films - such are often a very rewarding experience. No Horror enthusiast requires such a reminder, considering the numerous excellent titles from Asia. I have also seen some European foreign Horror films that were excellent. So I figured sampling a Horror film from Germany would be beneficial, won't it?

Sadly, "The Presence" brings nothing new nor the least innovative to the all too familiar field of found-footage ghost stories. It's more of an unimpressive mix and match puzzle of a haunting poltergeist and a pseudo-"documentary" crew of youngsters. Even the plot development, mainly featuring the change of attitudes among the three protagonists (sceptics become horrified believers, scientific become obsessed and blind to reality, etc. etc.) has been done before. Some of the cinematography is quite impressive and contributes much to the overall atmosphere, but not enough to redeem this film from its mediocrity. The best feature of this title, in my opinion, is by far the castle itself, both as a filming location and as the place of the plot's occurrences. While being the perfect setting for the story, I couldn't help but finding it too unrealistic and overly "convenient", as such perfectly suitable locations for hauntings and the documenting of supernatural events belong more in urban legends than a film requiring such an ectensive proportion of suspense of disbelief from its audience.

Finally, a few words about the ending, without giving away any spoilers of course. I feel that a Horror film's ending is one of its most critical features which has an extreme effect and influence on the film as a whole. A good ending with a smart plot twist which leaves just the right amount of questions unanswered can turn an average Horror film into a great one, and vice versa of course. The ending of "The Presence" felt like a direct continuation of its mediocre parts so far, leaving some room for guessing but not being interesting enough so as to elicit curiosity or any actual will to "find out what really happened".

It would be fair to say that I'm not exactly a fan of found-footage films. However, I have seen plenty enough titles of the sort to be able to judge more or less objectively (as much as an individual's critique of a film can be objective), some of which were excellent, some disappointing and others average at best. "The Presence" is one of the latter, so I'd only recommend it to Horror fans who indeed enjoy found-footage and are not expecting anything different than the "Paranormal Activity" anthology or even the classic Blair Witch. While I didn't find myself bored or uninterested throughout the film - I was from captivated or in any was emotionally involved.

The Presence is yet another demonstration of just how much the Blair Witch Project (1999) has to answer for. Every filmmaker with minimal funds seems to be choosing this cheap and nasty sub-genre and making a carbon copy of a thousand movies that came before it.

German made it tells the "Highly original" tale of 3 friends who perform a supernatural investigation in a castle. So cue the night vision, randomly moving objects, static, and lot's and lot's of screaming.

I have nothing against found footage per say, I'm just tired of each movie being the same as the last. When it comes to the sub genre I'd say there is a neat little scale, at the top you'd have Rec (2007) and Grave Encounters (2011) and it goes all the way down to Fear Footage (2018) and Paranormal Entity (2009).

At no point does it feel like this is being filmed inside a castle, it's limited to a couple of rooms and quite frankly they look like a combination of a persons house and a barn. I would have liked to see a castle setting, would have made a fresh change from asylums and haunted mansions.

Alike most other movies in this sub-genre very little happens, it suffers with all the usual tropes and cliches and ultimately is boring, lifeless and more evidence that found footage needs putting on the shelf for a while.

The Good:

Nope

The Bad:

Music/sound effects have no place in found footage

Very badly structured

Wasted setting

And shouldn't have send the footage back to be honest. This is the most boring, non-scaring film I've seen since .... well another flick I found on Netflix.

It's supposed to be about two guys and a girl going to a medieval castle to investigate paranormal activity. At least the boys are, the girlfriend of one is dragged along for the ride. It's setup with some very brief background info/lore and then we're off. To watch black and sepia couloured videos of people sleeping, of hearing bangs and other noises, and seeing blurred images as "stuff happen".

Midway through the film the girl begs for them to leave, and I think that should have been the best really, as it would have cut this rubbish offering down to maybe half. They didn't, and she didn't get rid of her broken boyfriend and that in the end cost her dearly. And him of course.

Cheap effects, cheap production in general, pointless script - half decent non-screaming acting is bearable, which is kind of the kindest I could say about this mess.

It is a boring carbon copy of so many movies with this plot and Horribly done. This German version seems it was just made for that' Germany 'with stealing every Part of the movie' Paranormal' and other video documentary style ghost movies and worse than that doing a poor job of it. Mostly a sit and squirm movie that will put you to sleep in your chair or more conveniently a couch when you do fall asleep. Very little of not happens and when it does it is petty crap. Not even worth a view on a slow night. Generic and anemic and just plan Boring !

Bad. Just bad in every way. Bad writing. Bad acting. Nothing about this movie makes sense. And the thing with cutting to every next scene with a high noise is so stupid. Like cutting in to someone stepping on a gravel road, only the first sound is much higher than the following. Insulting is what it is.

I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of found footage movies, having listed about 145 of them. They tend to get low ratings here, for the most part, as this one has.

The problem is that some of them can be pretty boring, with one dimensional characters and bad acting and/or dialogue. Some people can't take the shaky cam or hard to see video.

This one however I found to be quite refreshing, if not entirely original. It concerns a trio of friends who go to investigate a haunted castle far out in the German boonies.

The setting is quite creepy, both indoor and outdoor. The action doesn't take too long to get going and things get interesting pretty quickly.

I found it pretty fun to watch and genuinely scary/creepy in just the right places. At 82 minutes, it doesn't slow down for long or overstay its welcome. All in all a fun watch. 7/10.

If I can stop just one person from watching this tedious German rehashing of Paranormal Activity with a twist of Blair Witch, then writing this run-on sentence of a review will not have been a waste.

It's awful.

As far as the "Found Footage" aspect of this film, it's very well done. It feels real, as if you yourself had walked into a "haunted house" with friends and just began looking around and filming.

The writing, acting, and directing are all quality. And, most importantly, this movie is scary.

Disregard the knumbskulls who gave this well-executed ghost story a bad review, and check it out for yourself.

Ludicrous pretty much from start to finish. The best part of watching this movie was my friend and I doing Mystery Science Theatre to it. Totally not plausible, unconvincing, no plot or storyline to explain anything, and an oh so predictable ending. Next.

Ever since the success(?) of films like the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, lazy filmmakers have decided that "found footage" is "The New Genre of the Century©." This has resulted in a glut of trashy movies made on limited budgets by people who have little to no experience in producing "real" movies.

At least the Grade B horror movies I grew up with in the '50s had at the very least the bare semblance of a plot--or at least enough of one to verify that SOMEBODY had a creative thought.

"Found Films" have three basic formulae: (1) Everybody dies at the end, (2) Somebody dies at the end, and (3) You're never quite sure WHAT the outcome is. This makes for boring movies with little to know entertainment value.

Want to see a really GOOD horror flick? Try Todd Browning's original Dracula, or even Nosferatu, The Vampire.

Don't let the German language fool you - this is every bit as derivative, unimaginative, cheap, and lazy as the worst found footage horror films made in America.

Every trope is here: slamming doors, sleepwalking, video glitches, jump scares, and of course idiotic characters putting themselves wilfully in harm's way when any sane person would have run away screaming ten minutes in. If you've seen Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, and Grave Encounters, then there is literally nothing in this film you haven't seen before, and done much more competently.

Just one example of how shoddy this film is: when they needed the lights to flicker because of the haunting, they couldn't be bothered actually rigging up a dimmer switch. Instead they just dimmed the entire picture in post.

I resent the 85 or so minutes I wasted on this insulting piece of garbage.

While I saw a load of scathing reviews on my way into this, I made a point of not reading them. My expectations were suitably low, making a nice surprise possible (but let's be honest, unlikely).

I actually quite enjoyed it.

Sorry to those throwing rotten vegetables at this film, but for what it is, I felt it did the job reasonably well.

It's by no means perfect (or even 'really good') and I'm not going to ladle on the criticism because that'd be like shooting fish in a barrel, also, it's just mean.

What this film does possess, when compared to Blair Witch and the other found-footage franchises is the actual quantity of the paranormal activity (note the lower case letters). The supernatural entity in this is more active, vocal and just plain loud than those I've seen before. While this would make being there even more terrifying without a doubt, to the viewer I always feel that less is more.

With so much crashing and banging etc, with Becky scared out of her wits and the sleepwalking/nightmares that accompany it, that would be all the more reason to just jack it in and get the hell out of Dodge. "If you really loved me Markus, you'd save me from this hell..." (unfortunately not a direct quote from this)

The one piece of 'constructive criticism' I'd offer is that duringthe PA-esque nighttime infrared sleeping scenes, they build up tension reasonably well with noises and camera interference. Why then ruin it with sudden loud music and camera zoomery for a cheap jump? Less is more, young German padowan.

Food rotting from one moment to the next, while their back was turned was a nice little effect. Ditto with the ball disappearing then reappearing.

Rebecca really, really should have told Markus that she didn't like it and she was leaving. Now. With or without him. But no. She moans and is terrified but goes through with it, even though she claims to have felt that the entity wanted to do them harm. Sounds like my ex wife: passive/aggressive.

If you can't stand up when you need to and lay down the law, then I'm afraid that you're kinda asking for it.

Enough of my marriage councelling/pop psychiatry...

Insults/recriminations/threats etc inspired by my review of this please place below:

I loved it, im a horror fan and this movie scared me and I will remember this movie especially the tumbling and ponding scenes!

I have now, like many of us, seen pretty much all manner of "Found Footage" flicks. Some pretty damn good. Some so-so. And FAR too many just flat-out dreadful. However, out of this whole "Hit or Miss" bunch I can't recall one that wasn't made in the USA. That is until I took a chance on a German entry into this past-it's-prime genre, "Die Präsenz" ("The Presence"). And I gotta say, I would plop this one down right smack-dab between "pretty damn good" and "so-so" on the worthwhile-to-watch spectrum.

You will likely join me in finding that it takes a good while before things get crackin' here (Do the Germans have a fascination with prolonged camera shots of watching people sleep? As in, like, SEVERAL such scenes). But once Writer/Director/Producer Daniele Grieco (hey, dude pretty much HAD to do it all on a reported $40,000 budget) fires things up here the ages-old haunted castle terrorized by an unseen and ruthlessly inhospitable entity yarn gets a fairly fresh new spin that should leave you both sufficiently entertained and adequately creeped out.

Taking a trip together, a group of friends decide to film their visit to a supposedly haunted castle out in the German wilderness for a school project, only for their stay to be continually interrupted by a haunting series of supernatural activities that threaten their very lives and sanity.

For the most part, this wasn't all that bad of a found-footage effort. The main aspect that works here is the wholly enjoyable setup of the group heading out to the location which is the entire purpose here. Diving straight in on what's going on without much down-time at all, the purpose of seeing them arrive at the seemingly abandoned castle at the very start of the film which causes this to unleash the expected setups around the castle as they get to experience the marvelous Gothic atmosphere of the crumbling stone walls and decaying ruins of the rooms inside. This fun build-up allows the film to really start having some fun once it gets into the series of hauntings that play out within here. With some fine setup beforehand, this one gives some rather enjoyable scenes here that play-off really well, from the constant off-screen banging that is a major freak-out factor to the shots of the group sleeping in their rooms and focusing on the events around them which are played out rather nicely as that allows the film to really break out a truly terrifying scenario of the fighting between the group leading to the house to start loudly banging around them, interrupting their argument. The need to document everything for their trip also means that their desire to film when least expecting it for some rather creepy imagery. These here are what make this one fun over it's few minor flaws. The main facet that really undermines this one is the most common and artificial trope of the genre in that it's internal logic isn't always reasonable or consistent. Since the ghostly activity that occurs here gradually gets far more dangerous and fantastic the longer they stay, the reasoning for them being there is incredibly inconsistent as they are so unwilling to accept the truth the group is consistently putting themselves in danger for no real reason other than to keep the movie going. While it generates some creepy concepts with the rotting fruit and the urination at the most inopportune times, yet why they would continue to stay there is truly troubling. The other rather problematic issue here is the fact that there's just such a repetition of the various scare tactics that it grows old rather fast. The idea of screaming loudly at the camera while we're watching the infrared footage or to hear loud, cacophonous banging out in the distance is all this really offers which means it repeatedly offers up the same type of sequences over and over again and really wears itself out when it features the same kind of actions for its scare scenes. It's irrelevant how effective they are, but the repetition is what undermines this, but thankfully beyond these issues, there isn't much else wrong here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

There is very little that is original or exciting in this film. It's a standard modern-day haunted house "found footage" style horror. Some of the spooks amount to silly jumpscares, some of them provoke laughter at how silly they are, and some are so incredibly subtle that you would never even notice if you weren't actively looking for something out of the ordinary.

The characters are fine. The setting is fine. There's a decent enough backstory to the old castle, and all of it is clear and evident and predictable. It still manages to be fun and oddly entertaining. It tries nothing new and gives nothing new, and by the first ten minutes or so, you're well aware of this and thus have the opportunity to bail out early on without wasting much of your time.

The only major complaint I would have is that every single instance of spooky jumpscare or ghosty activity is preceded by very loud and very noticeable on-screen static and video distortion. It makes an already predictable moment even more predictable.

About the only thing memorable for me is this film is German and I do not know German

I am not gonna lie; this is the most generic paranormal movie I have ever seen. That being said, nothing about it ever made me want to stop watching. Never did I think that it was a bad movie. For some reason, it seemed fitting that this movie was generic, and it somehow made perfect sense. There is not anything negative to say about it, but there is not really anything positive either. It is a perfect, bland movie. There is not much to suprise you, but it will not disappoint either.