Paranormal Activity is an inescapable horror franchise that helped usher in a second age of found footage filmmaking. It’s a franchise that completely changed the rules for how ghost stories are told and has inspired countless copycats. The films have grossed nearly one billion dollars and it remains one of the most defining horror franchises of the past 15 years. That being said, it’s not necessarily a franchise that you’d think about adapting for the stage.
Its charm is that it doles out tiny snapshots of slice-of-life mundanity through many separate vignettes. It’s a franchise that doesn’t squander its found footage format and specifically leans into it to punctuate its scares. A stage version of Paranormal Activity immediately loses the found footage artifice, yet this production brilliantly emulates the experience and creates something that’s just as powerful and even more creative.
The play, written by Levi Holloway (The Grey House) and directed by Felix Barrett (Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More), effortlessly and innovatively taps into the film franchise’s visceral fears and mounting dread that slowly reaches a terrifying fever pitch. This is all beautifully magnified through the raw theatrical experience that pushes the show’s greatest moments even further than what’s possible in the movies. It’s like you’re trapped in the house with these characters and spirits. It’s the scariest show on Broadway.
Paranormal Activity is wise to tell an original story with fresh characters, rather than simply adapt one of the franchise’s existing films with revised scares. The framework to these films is always rather simplistic. They’re movies that benefit from minimalism, and in this sense, this production certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Newlyweds James (Travis A. Knight) and Lou (Cher Álvarez) move to London from Chicago for a fresh start. However, strange activity in their new home begins to wear them both down and exacerbate existing vulnerabilities within their marriage. As reality breaks and trust becomes more important than ever, it’s unclear if James and Lou – let alone their marriage – will survive these paranormal attacks.
It’s a solid enough setup that allows for emotional backstory and opportunities for these characters to be victimized by this demonic spirit both separately and together. Paranormal Activity’s intentionally pedestrian protagonists are meant to be conduits for unnerving set pieces and spectral events, which are in strong supply here. The show is two hours and ten minutes long, with intermission, which gives it enough time for its terrors to successfully evolve with pacing that’s on par with the films. It’s an incredibly economical script in which not a single line of dialogue is wasted. Seemingly innocuous digressions all connect together to serve the grander paranormal picture.
Knight and Álvarez have such natural chemistry and their performances are perfectly tuned to this tonal balancing act. They know how to ramp up the terror when it’s appropriate and then how to defuse that tension through affable everyday behavior. Knight and Álvarez never feel too theatrical, and the performances ring true to the more naturalistic work that’s done in the earliest Paranormal Activity films. Álvarez in particular delivers such a captivating, fragile performance.
There’s deep-seated trauma for both characters that bubbles up to the surface and makes sure that the play succeeds as a grief-stricken drama just as much as it works as horror. James and Lou are wading through dread even before anything supernatural strikes. Their story argues that life is just one big paranormal experience for some people.
A stage version of Paranormal Activity could be tackled from all sorts of different angles. This production absolutely nails it with its inventive set design, which is presented as a multi-room cross-section that conditions the audience to be looking at several places at once. It’s a rather brilliant way to emulate the film franchise’s found footage surveillance aesthetic, only it’s the audience’s attention that dictates which room becomes their focus. It’s a visual setup that properly conveys the terrifying feeling that the entire house is constantly vulnerable.
A wide range of tricks bring sinister set pieces to life. Moving shadows and visual hallucinations are fun tools to creep out the audience. The same is true for the excellent sound design that amplifies every gesture and at times bombards the audience like an inescapable sonic explosion. There are other, more elaborate scares that truly feel like magic tricks. Paranormal Activity is such a remarkable accomplishment in practical effects, the likes of which really push boundaries here. The pacing and execution are no different than some big-budget horror movie.
There are certain stage plays that feature all these elements, but ultimately lack genuine scares. Paranormal Activity is brilliant on a technical level. It’s also deeply frightening and doesn’t hold back in this department. It’s the scariest production I’ve ever seen on stage (which includes the comparable, creepy poltergeist play, 2:22 A Ghost Story), and it’s a show that just works. The audience’s reaction to the scares was far bigger than I’ve ever experienced in a movie theater, which is really saying something. This production seamlessly translates the blockbuster horror experience to the stage, complete with standout jump scares and a pitch-perfect ending that stays true to the franchise’s nihilism.
Paranormal Activity is exceptional in every regard. It’s both daring and different, but also a faithful portrayal of what this franchise represents. It holds its own with the franchise’s best entries, and it’s not just some lazy attempt to cash in on one of horror’s most lucrative franchises. It’s the scariest that Paranormal Activity has been in well over a decade and such a satisfying extrapolation of this series that still has its own identity.
It’s a must-watch experience for horror fans that will hopefully continue to expand and reach a larger audience; as many people as possible need to feel like they’re being attacked by sinister spirits and to get lost in Paranormal Activity’s bone-chilling beauty.
Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage opened on Broadway on August 25.
