Presence ending explained: Who is the ghost & is the spirit evil?

Presence is a new horror film about a ghost haunting a family, but is the spirit a malevolent force? Here’s how the story plays out…

Presence has a pretty impressive pedigree, being penned by Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp, who has form in this genre having also written the brilliant Stir of Echoes. While director Steven Soderbergh has also dabbled, via the very effective Unsane.

Their new collaboration plays out from the POV of a ghost, that appears to be trapped in a house, where it watches a family move in, then follows them around the home for the duration of the movie.

Though while it’s a horror movie, we’ve argued that Presence isn’t particularly scary, instead leaning into family drama, before turning into something quite nasty. We’re going into detail about that unpleasantness now, so SPOILERS AHEAD…

What happens at the end of Presence?

At the end of Presence, teenager Chris runs at serial killer Ryan to save his sister Chloe’s life. The pair both fly out of an upstairs window, and the fall kills them both, but Chloe survives the ordeal.

The family are in crisis mode for much of the movie, due to a recent trauma that Chloe experienced, which negatively affected her mental health.

As the movie progresses, we discover that two of her friends have died in their sleep. It gradually becomes clear that Chris’s new friend Ryan was responsible, drugging them, torturing them, then killing the girls and making it look like an accident.

Through all this, the ghost is watching, and during the film’s early scenes, it’s unclear if said spirit is evil. However, when Ryan makes his first attempt on Chloe’s life by mixing drugs into her drink, the ghost saves her by pushing the glass onto the floor, indicating that the spirit is friend rather than foe.

Neon

Ryan is a determined young man, however, so returns for a second go when the siblings’ parents are away. He drugs Chris, then does the same to Chloe, and gets to work bringing her in and out of consciousness by suffocating her.

As their romance blossomed, Ryan constantly told her she could choose how far they would go, and that she was always in control. But here it becomes clear that Ryan is obsessed with control, his need for power over victims driving his murderous urges.

As Chloe’s life ebbs away, the ghost rouses Chris, who realizes Chloe is in danger, runs up the stairs, and throws himself at Ryan, resulting in both teens falling to their deaths.

The identity of the ghost in Presence

Paramount+

Presence then cuts to sometime later, when the family is moving out of the house. Mom Rebekah takes one last look in the downstairs mirror, where she sees the ghost of Chris, revealing the spirit has been her son all along.

That corresponds with something a psychic says earlier in the movie, when she explains that time doesn’t work the same for their ghostly visitor, making its past and present unclear.

Rebekah screams and breaks down, and her husband and Chloe run to her aid. As they are comforting Rebekah, Chris’s spirit leaves the house and flies up into the sky, his ghost free to finally move on.

Presence is in cinemas now. For more genre fare, head here to find out which scary movies we’re looking forward to in 2025, or here to read our list of the best horror movies ever.