The Blair Witch Project is often cited as the horror film that popularized the found-footage technique and subgenre. Subsequently, in the early to mid-2000s, found footage took off. One film that revived and reinvigorated the found-footage subgenre was Paranormal Activity, which went on to become a box office success and beloved franchise. Found footage, especially the Paranormal Activity movies, offer an immersive and intimate experience for audiences that feels all too real, so it’s only fitting that the franchise takes that experience to the stage.
Paranormal Activity is now on Broadway, and it’s already a hit with fans and critics alike. Helen Shaw of the New York Times says, “Now, I am a big old scaredy-cat, and I did plenty of arm-clutching (sorry, neighbor to my left!) during Paranormal Activity. Yet the sense of release that follows horror of this kind might not only be the relief of having survived the jump scares. There’s also a strangely comforting suggestion that in a world where evildoers seem beyond the reach of justice, something is watching. If it’s hard to see for now, that’s only because it’s waiting to make the sinners pay.”
Frank Rizzo, writing for Variety praised director Felix Barrett for creating “an impressive, otherworldly, immersive experience.” Like the films, The Paranormal Activity Experience puts audiences directly into the horror, though in a much more personal way. Rizzo notes that “the audience is sitting in place, as Barrett expertly guides the gasps like a sinister maestro, and offers an exhilarating funhouse night in the theater.”
However, Frank Scheck of the New York Stage Review noted that “theatergoers hoping for a sophisticated ghost story like The Weir or The Woman in Black will probably find the evening hopelessly lowbrow.” Scheck went on to describe the show as “a scary good time” and if one can “endure the frequently deafening sound level, Paranormal Activity is the show for you.”
Written by Levi Holloway and directed by Felix Barrett, the play is an original story about James and Lou who move from Chicago to London to escape their past. After moving, they soon discover they can’t outrun their past and that places aren’t haunted, people are. The story is inspired by the popular horror franchise and reimagines the modern ghost story with an intimacy that only a live theater experience can provide. The production stars Cher Álvarez as Lou, Travis A. Knight as James, Shannon Cochran as Carolanne, and Eva Kaminsky as Etheline Cotgrave with understudies Caron Buinis, Caroline Hendricks and Michael Holding.
It’s no wonder critics are praising the experience for being a hauntingly immersive experience, as the lead performers, Álvarez and Knight joined the production at different stages and brought it to audiences in cities across the country before officially arriving on Broadway.
Paranormal Activity will be on Broadway for a limited 20-week run, from Aug. 14 through early 2027.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
