Steven Soderbergh says his upcoming horror movie Presence is inspired by a decade-old reality TV show starring Carrie Fisher and Mickey Rooney

Lucy Liu as Rebekah in Steven Soderbergh's Presence

(Image credit: NEON)

Steven Soderbergh's upcoming horror movie flips the haunted house subgenre on its head by having the whole movie shot from the ghost's perspective. But that's not the only strange thing about Presence, as Soderbergh says he found inspiration for the look of the movie in the most unlikely of places… a '00s ghost-hunting reality TV show.

"One of my favorite shows is Celebrity Ghost Stories. You've got to see it! You can tell people were traumatized by these experiences – they're not kidding around," Soderbergh says in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features Star Trek spin-off movie Section 31 on the cover and hits newsstands on December 31.

"What distinguished a lot of those stories was that they often didn't come with the trappings of a typical ghost experience as we've seen in the movies – they were very matter-of-fact," explains the director. "I thought, 'Okay, that's interesting.'"

Premiering in 2009, Celebrity Ghost Stories is an American reality series that details accounts of paranormal happenings experienced by celebrities. Over the years, stars such as Carrie Fisher, Mickey Rooney, and Chaka Khan appeared on the show. A usual episode consists of the celebrity being interviewed about their experience whilst eerie B-roll, creepy music, and dramatic retellings play throughout.

So, if the ghost is behind the camera the whole time, who plays it? That would be the director himself. "I'm used to being close to the actors as the camera operator, but this was a real dance that I was doing with the cast. It was fun, because I really got to share some of their performance anxiety as we were doing the scene… On occasion, a take would get ruined because I'd bumped into them, or got trapped in the wrong place because I timed my movement incorrectly."

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Presence releases on January 24, 2025. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which features Star Trek spin-off movie Section 31 on the cover and hits newsstands on Tuesday, December 31.

I'm the Junior Social Media Editor here at GamesRadar+, handling all of Total Film's social platforms. However, I also write, covering all things film and TV for the site's entertainment section. I joined GamesRadar+ in 2023 and have been here ever since. I previously worked in communications after graduating with an MA in journalism. In my spare time, you can find me binging horror movies or getting lost in a cosy little game on my Switch.