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Please note: this review contains some spoilers.

I have long been a proponent of bringing the horror genre to the theatre, so when I heard that the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise was being adapted into a new story for the stage, I jumped on the chance to get into that room. And I was, as you will read, quite blown away.

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Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage has been making tour stops in LA, Chicago, DC, and will end in San Francisco before its West End run in London. 

The playwright Levi Holloway’s first Broadway show Grey House also happens to be the first horror theatre I ever reviewed. I remember being underwhelmed by the show and was disappointed in not only the story itself, but also the fact that the show did not incorporate any notable scares. To say Holloway’s take on PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is a huge step up is an understatement and I am thoroughly impressed at his ability to take his knack for horror and really sharpen it this time around. 

Our story begins as most PARANORMAL ACTIVITY stories begin: with a couple moving into a new house. Lou (Cher Álvarez) and James (Travis A. Knight) have been married for almost a year and have just set up their lives in London after a move from Chicago. The house they move to is a gorgeous duplex designed by Fly Davis. The set is cut away and we can see into every room except for a mysterious door in the middle of the second floor which we are told will one day serve as a nursery. This door turns out to lead to more than a hypothetical room for a not yet existing child.

We begin to hear hints that something went wrong between the couple in Chicago, but we are not sure what yet. Most of what we see for the first half hour of the show is Lou begging to be believed when she explains to James she is seeing strange things around the house. He brushes her off, asks if she is taking her depression medications, and generally moves about like the bad boyfriend from the original film. But after a truly nightmare personal encounter with an entity in their home (performed through masterful illusions designed by Chris Fisher), Holloway turns this well-known story on its head.

This stage show showcases why horror is so perfectly fit for theatre: it takes its time to introduce the characters, set up the circumstances, and pull off scares that can only work with the intimacy and immediacy that theatre allows for. The first major scare does not happen until at least a half hour into the first act, so Holloway is able to build up the tension until it completely unexpectedly snaps. Once it does, the stage goes black – allowing the audience to process in real time the screams they have just scrumt and linger on our collective wondering of “how did they do that!?” Horror is at its best when experienced with an audience, and placing it in a large space with an even bigger audience than in a movie theatre is pure magic. We all jumped, but then we all laughed together at the way the show managed to get us, even though we know it's not real. 

After the scares begin, they don’t stop. I was squeezing my hands and holding my breath for the rest of the show’s runtime. I have not been that effectively scared by a piece of horror media in quite some time, especially by something from PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. But the original few movies are scary and this play is scary. Every single scare is ridiculously impressive, not only because of Fisher’s illusions, but also because of the actors who manage to pull them off so seamlessly. I don’t think I will ever get over how Álvarez manages to complete her big reveal (one that I assure will be the big talking point of the whole show.) Shannon Cochran, who plays James’ mom Carolanne, is charged with some particularly heavy lifting in her role and manages to convince the entire audience to fall for the same scare twice in a row. And did you know she was the scary lady from the videotape in THE RING (2002)? Scream queen legend.

This installment into the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY universe may not include the usual found footage element, but it manages to find a new and exciting way to deliver what has made the franchise so exciting. It breathes fresh air into the formula of a simple story that becomes corrupted by the characters’ past. The setup of the story needs to be grounded in inner turmoil and secrets between characters in order to execute the level of scare it is able to achieve. With an entire house for our eyes to jump around and two people who are clearly dishonest with one another–there is no telling where the paranormal will creep in. And with the level of craftsmanship from this team, there is also no telling how the scares will be pulled off. Just as the original series shows us, it is not always a place that is haunted, sometimes it is people.

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