What do you do when you’re the only person that can signal something truly dire looming in the darkness? How do you handle information that you can’t possibly comprehend? Would you rather not know what evil is coming forth, or do you put the information to good use? Director Colin MacDonald’s short horror film is teeming with foreshadowing and excellent dread that promises a great dose of terror and atmosphere fans will get behind.
“Presence” stars Glen Matthews as a musician preparing to record a record who starts receiving odd distorted voices in his head. Disrupting his plans, he ventures home and begins realizing that the voices in his head aren’t signs of insanity. Something is disrupting his hearing in an effort to contact him. Or perhaps he’s being given signs from beyond that are warning him. Director MacDonald really strives to build upon the less is more rule, and that works very much in favor of “Presence.”
Director MacDonald really mounts the tension and narrative with every minute, asking the audience to figure out if the main character is perhaps going insane, or something more dire is at hand. Matthews is really good in his role as the protagonist forced to endure this series of events, and we feel his torturous experience from minute one. Filled with some incredibly creepy scenes and an eerie final scene, “Presence” is a great short dose of horror and how too much knowledge of what’s out there can be almost too much to comprehend for some people.