PRESENCE
*CUT TO THE CHASE*NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
The film opens in an empty house. An unseen entity, or the “Presence”, wanders around every room in the early morning, just before someone arrives.
A realtor, Cece (Julia Fox), shows up to greet the Paine family – Chris and Rebecca (Chris Sullivan and Lucy Liu), plus kids Tyler and Chloe (Eddy Maday and Callina Liang). Chloe is grieving the loss of her best friend Nadia, one of two girls from her school who died in their sleep from suspected drug overdoses. The Presence observes the family throughout their time in the house.
Chris and Rebecca appear to be suffering from marriage problems. He knows that Rebecca is committing fraud at her job, and he starts speaking to a lawyer to consider separating. Rebecca dotes on Tyler, a star swimmer who is also a jerk, and she doesn’t show the same attention to Chloe. Meanwhile, the family gets people to work on the house, but at least one worker states that they will not enter a room where they sense that the Presence is around.
The Presence starts to slowly make itself known to Chloe, making her think it is Nadia. It moves books from her bed to her desk, which startles her at first.
Tyler introduces Chloe to his friend, Ryan (West Mulholland). Chloe takes an interest in him, and they start to privately see each other. While alone in her room, they start to get intimate until Chloe starts crying in Ryan’s arms. He starts to give her a whole speech about how he has felt like he never had control in his life. They start to kiss again and take their shirts off, but the Presence makes a shelf in Chloe’s closet suddenly collapse.
Chloe brings up that she thinks there is something in the house. Tyler rudely dismisses it as her being sad over Nadia, in turn dismissing her and the other girl’s deaths as the result of drug addictions. Later on, the Presence watches as Tyler talks about how he and Ryan set up a girl at school and passed around a picture of her. Rebecca is curious about the situation, while Chloe and Chris are disgusted. The Presence goes to Tyler’s room and trashes it, which the family witnesses. As they discuss things outside, Tyler mocks Chloe again, and Chris snaps at him for his treatment of his sister.
Chris contacts Cece, who says nobody was reported to have died in the house. She recommends a medium friend of hers, Lisa (Natalie Woodlams-Torr), who arrives at the house with her husband, Carl (Lucas Papaelias). Lisa senses the Presence in the house and determines that Chloe suffered from a loss, and therefore opened some kind of “door” to let the Presence communicate with her. Rebecca thinks Lisa was a fraud, but Chris later tells Chloe that, due to his upbringing, he started to believe in certain things and is supporting Chloe’s claims of the Presence.
Chloe and Ryan start to have sex, while the Presence watches in the closet. Chloe goes to take a shower, and Ryan starts to slip a date rape drug into her orange juice. Before she can drink it, the Presence knocks the juice off the counter.
Lisa later returns to the house to speak to Chris. She tries to warn him that she had a vision about something terrible happening within a few days, something to do with a window in Chloe’s room that would not open.
Over the weekend, Rebecca and Chris leave for a business trip. Ryan comes over to hang out with Chloe, even though Tyler will be there. Ryan drugs Tyler with Ambien before going to try the same with Chloe. She tells him that she doesn’t want to have sex but will still hang out with him. He gives her the drink, and she starts to fall asleep. Ryan then gets some plastic wrap and starts to put it over Chloe’s mouth, admitting to her that he did the same to Nadia and the other girl to make it look like an overdose, and he plans to do the same with Chloe. The Presence goes to wake Tyler up by flickering the lights and getting in his face. Tyler runs upstairs in time to find Ryan and tackles him out the window, where they both fall to their deaths.
Later on, the family starts to move again. Before leaving, Rebecca goes over to the mirror, where she sees Tyler’s reflection looking at her. She collapses to the ground crying before Chris and Chloe go to console her. The Presence then seems to leave the house for good.
The Paine family - Chris, Rebecca, Tyler, Chloe - move into a new house, which is inhabited by a spirit, or a "Presence". It observes the family's problems - Chloe is grieving the loss of her best friend Nadia, while Chris thinks of separating from Rebecca due to her committing illegal activities at work. Tyler also has a bad attitude with his sister and is doted on by his mother.
Chloe starts to spend time with Tyler's friend Ryan, while the Presence observes. It watches as Ryan tries to drug Chloe but stops her from doing so. The family also speaks to a medium, who states that the Presence is there in part due to Chloe's grief over Nadia, and potentially to warn the family over an impending tragic event.
Chris and Rebecca leave for a business trip. Ryan comes over and drugs Tyler so he can do the same to Chloe. After she admits she doesn't want to have sex, Ryan gives her a spiked drink and prepares to suffocate her the same way he did to Nadia and another girl. The Presence wakes Tyler up in time for him to save his sister, tackling Ryan out the window to their deaths.