Dark movie theaters, or creepy home basements, are the classic venues of choice for those who love supernatural scares. But “Paranormal Activity,” which opened Tuesday night at the August Wilson Theatre, makes the case that, yes, you can be scared out of your wits at a Broadway house, sitting among 1,200 other lost souls.
I let out plenty of involuntary grunts and screeches, and I’d even seen this show before.
It helps that it’s dark in there and the sound effects are of a volume and intensity to levitate your body from its seat. You might even find yourself clutching your neighbor’s sinewy knee for comfort. Who knows?
“Paranormal Activity” is not the first example of a Broadway horror show (LOL). But whereas some other chillers have flamed out, this one comes with a true maestro of the form in Felix Barrett of the British company Punchdrunk. Barrett has the craft to exploit one of the most notable features of this Paramount Pictures franchise: terrorizing audiences by first sucking them into intimate, domestic settings.
Matthew Murphy
“Paranormal Activity” on Broadway. (Matthew Murphy)
Barrett’s carefully choreographed production of this original script (it’s not some cheap screen-to-stage adaptation) from savvy writer Levi Holloway is exceptionally adept not just at the big scares most people will remember on the train home, but the crucial quieter moments where characters express their vulnerability and pain.
If you’re expecting an overwhelming, non-stop spectacle on the level of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” or “The Lost Boys,” you’ll be disappointed. But the single location (a house in England) and the gentle moments between a young, married couple (Cher Alvarez and Travis A. Knight), professionals recently transplanted from Chicago to a house with secrets, explains why this show works so well.
“Paranormal Activity” picks its moments. It builds tension as we come to see this marriage is on shaky ground, not least because of the influence of the husband’s fundamentalist mother (Shannon Cochran). The full dimensions of the two-story set from Fly Davis is revealed only gradually to us, thanks to Anna Watson’s lighting.
And once a medium (Eva Kaminsky) shows up and the house goes crazy — doors and windows flying open, mysterious figures looming, secret trajectories revealed — we’ve already come to pull for a young woman with demons we’ve yet to fully understand. And there is a cool 180-degree turn at the climax of Holloway’s script that confounds everything the audience thinks it understands but that makes logical sense all the same.
Matthew Murphy
“Paranormal Activity” on Broadway. (Matthew Murphy)
Thankfully, “Paranormal Activity” avoids the self-aware tropes of tired horror franchises that have nothing left to do but parody themselves. Here, you get an honest, analog story, happily devoid of digital trickery but grounded in the kind of psychological realism that creates the best nightmares. This is a plot-driven, genre-fueled, audience-centered experience, for sure, and far from some artsy or pretentious affair that will be exciting the scholars of the American theater.
Thank God, though. “Paranormal Activity” knows what it wants to pull off and the execution is first-rate.
I first saw “Paranormal Activity” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where it began U.S. operations with this same physical production and mostly with this same, effective, Chicago-based cast. That space had one advantage over the August Wilson: less intrusive exit signs. On Broadway, these glow like amber beacons, alas offering a respite from the darkness that best serves what Holloway and Barrett are trying to do.
But that’s a given: nobody wants to be trampling over bodies in an emergency.
This show is scary enough.