Review: Paranormal Activity Is the Scariest Show on Broadway

The scariest thing about a Broadway show is usually the ticket price. Not so with Levi Holloway’s Paranormal Activity, now terrifying audiences at the August Wilson Theatre following a national tour (the run on London’s West End is ongoing). Featuring cutting-edge stage effects and a story guaranteed to disrupt your sleep, it is the must-see Broadway show for scream queens.

Holloway, who last spooked Broadway audience with Grey House, has based his script on Oren Peli’s franchise of low-budget horror films, but the story is entirely original. It’s about Lou (Cher Álvarez) and James (Travis A. Knight), an American couple recently relocated to London from Chicago. A survivor of major childhood trauma, Lou has long contended with strange phenomena: the eerie sound of breathing that isn’t hers, blackouts that take her from one room to another, and a constant anxiety about looming violence. She hoped that moving across the ocean would help her escape whatever is plaguing her, but the creepy little London home seems to have only exacerbated the problem. James wonders if his wife is truly haunted or just mentally ill.

“You’re literally gas lighting me,” she screams in frustration when he discovers the knobs turned up on the stove and becomes convinced that the propane got to her head. But we know what we saw, when the electricity suddenly shut off but the television inexplicably began flipping through the most horrifying images. This is the kind of show where you can expect the stranger seated next to you to grab your arm in fright.

Spare a thought for the 32BJ cleaners (now under a new contract) who must nightly contend with spilled popcorn and tiny puddles of urine left by horrified spectators unprepared for the jumps and bumps in director Felix Barrett’s marvelously sneaky production. Like a cat playing with a mouse, Barrett takes his time, winding up and drawing out the suspense as we buckle up for two hours of terror.

It begins with the slow reveal of Fly Davis’s two-story set, a space expansive enough to keep us guessing from which dark corner the next horror will emerge. Lighting designer Anna Watson subtly trains our eyes with dark shadows and realistic diversions: Are those the headlights of a passing car or something more sinister? Watson seamlessly collaborates with projection designer Luke Halls so that we begin to question our own eyes.

But it’s sound designer Gareth Fry who will really scare the bejesus out of you with creaking doors, aggressive pounding, and a slowly mounting rumble of dread underscoring the scenes. Fry’s cinematic approach to sound design proves even scarier in a live theater.

Most impressive is Chris Fisher’s illusion design, which is destined to provoke spirited post-show discussions of just how he pulled it off (no spoilers or theories here). Fisher, who has previously designed illusions for Harry Potter and Stranger Things, here solidifies his reputation as the great wizard of Broadway.

The stagecraft is impressive, but it wouldn’t work without an excellent cast of actors selling the reality of every moment. Eva Kaminsky brilliantly inhabits the role of Etheline Cotgrave, fully committing to the candle-lighting seriousness of the paranormal podcaster. Shannon Cochran provides much-needed comic relief as James’s overbearing mother Carolanne, imperceptibly toggling between the quotidian horror of a mother-in-law to something far more bone-chilling. And Bobby J. Howlett makes every second of her scant stage-time count as this play’s most elusive figure—you won’t even see her during the curtain call.

Álvarez and Knight make triumphant Broadway debuts as Lou and James, a married couple who quickly win our sympathy with their attractive senses of humor and simple relatability. Yet we get a sense that we aren’t seeing the full story, and that these two people who only wed a year ago might not completely know each other, either.

While the supernatural horror is the reason to buy a ticket to Paranormal Activity, Holloway cleverly reinforces his story with themes of trust and secrecy that many in the audience will find hits uncomfortably close to home. Yes, this is a play about a haunting, but it’s also about the cracks in a relationship just big enough for a ghost to slip in. Thinking about that will really keep you up at night.