Paranormal Activity by Levi Holloway. Directed by Felix Barrett. Scenic and costume design by Fly Davis. Illusions design by Chris Fisher. Lighting design by Anna Watson. Sound design by Gareth Fry. Video and projections design by Luke Halls. Associate scenic designer Frank McCullough. Associate illusions designer Daniel Weissglass. Associate lighting designer Abby May. Associate sound designer Will Pickens. Associate video designer Lianne Arnold.
Cast: Cher Álvarez, Travis A. Knight, Shannon Cochran, Eva Kaminsky, and Bobby J. Howlett.
Theater: August Wilson Theatre
Tickets: ParanormalBroadway.com

Travis A. Knight and Cher Álvarez Photo by Matthew Murphy

The play, offering up an original story inspired by and borrowing its title from the wildly successful movie franchise of the same name (seven films thus far, with an eighth in production), sets out to immerse the audience in an atmosphere of growing terror and impending doom. It is directed with aplomb by Felix Barrett, for whom immersive theatre has been a mainstay (he co-directed Sleep No More, which ran in New York for nearly 14 years).

In the case of Paranormal Activity, you won't be roaming around the theater or finding yourself being assaulted from the safety zone on the safe side of the unbroken fourth wall. But you are likely to feel the thrum of dread, gasp out loud, and start in your seat at various points along the way.

This is the stuff horror fans live for. And while Paranormal Activity may seem to be aimed at a niche crowd, apparently that niche is pretty expansive. Thus far, at least through the preview period that just ended, it is selling out the house and attracting a younger-than-typical audience. This is perhaps indicative of a passing of the theatregoing baton from Boomers to Gen Zers as live theatre is sharpening up its own technology to compete with CGI and other forms of movie magic to create a more visceral experience.

This has been an evolving experiment, encompassing in recent years the enhanced stage magic of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the tech-heavy Stranger Things: The First Shadow, and the film-to-stage translation of The Lost Boys. In each of these examples, the design elements are meant to enhance and support the underlying story. With Paranormal Activity, however, this is the dominating feature, its raison d'être.

There is a plot, to be sure. We meet an attractive young American couple, James (Travis A. Knight) and Lou (Cher Álvarez), shortly after they have moved into a two-story home in London. They have come there to roost after an abrupt departure from Chicago, a place where something unsettling happened. That "something" is, of course, the underpinning to the story, and we are slowly fed bits of information until everything is eventually revealed.

James and Lou display all the expected elements of a couple put into such a situation in any number of films. She believes in and fears the supernatural (and has reason to do so). He is the sure-of-himself guy who brushes off her anxiety and thinks all he has to do is humor her and overwhelm her with his male logic. As things start to grow increasingly inexplicable, however, he is the one who starts to crumble, almost literally embodying the expression, "there are no atheists in foxholes." By then, their mounting fear and our growing unease have become inextricably linked.

The two leads, along with Shannon Cochran as James' judgmental Bible-thumper mother and Eva Kaminsky as a podcaster of the supernatural, who turns up to breach the wall between the living and the dead, are giving excellent performances. But really, the plot and character development amount to a MacGuffin, a distraction. We're not there for the plot. Substitute any manner of revelations and the outcome will be the same.

What does matter is the mix of design elements aimed at scaring us. That's as basic as it gets, but it is all done with tremendous skill. The fright team includes a terrific illusion designer (Chris Fisher) and a trio of visual and audio artists who consistently deliver the goods: Anna Watson's creepy lighting, Luke Halls' video and projection work, and, especially, Gareth Fry's dread-inducing soundscape.

For my part, I was particularly disconcerted by some quietly unsettling lighting/projection effects at the start of Act II. But there's something for everyone who likes being frightened while nestled safely within a controlled environment that the theater can offer. Any nightmares that follow are your own to handle.