The entire film is shot entirely from the ghost's point of view, the audience haunting a family that has recently moved into a New Jersey home, not realizing that something was already living there. Critic Sean Burns says it's a great gimmick,

They’re selling “Presence” as a horror movie when it’s something else entirely: a ghost story as told from the point of view of the ghost. As such, it’s more unsettling than scary, more dramatically gripping than nerve-shredding. And it’s directed by Steven Soderbergh, so you know it has to be smart.