By Arik Levy
Can the things we try to leave behind ever truly stop following us? In Levi Holloway’s stage adaptation of the Paranormal Activity films, directed by Felix Barrett, an American couple’s attempt to escape their past takes a terrifying turn.
Currently playing at the Ambassador’s Theatre in London and touring the UK and Ireland, the production begins as a slow burn, and a cunning one too. James (Ty Fanning) and Lou (Ami Okumura Jones) move from Chicago to London in search of a fresh start, finding what seems to be the perfect home, save for a few banging pipes and dodgy electrics. The early scares that follow are classic haunted-house fare, with flickering lights and slamming doors just familiar enough to lull you into a false sense of security before the real horror arrives.
The production excels – just as the original movie did – at turning the ordinary into something terrifying. Set designer Fly Davis’s two-storey home feels lived-in rather than theatrical, while lighting designer Anna Watson captures the passing headlights that sweep through the windows and drift across the walls. It is a small, everyday detail that makes you feel as though you are sitting in the room with the couple. Meanwhile, sound designer Gareth Fry keeps the tension simmering, sometimes at an almost uncomfortable volume.
Translating the found-footage horror of the films to the stage is no small feat, but Barrett finds a clever solution: rather than relying on a camera, the production turns your own attention against you. Your eye is drawn towards one character while something shifts quietly in the background, leaving you to register the horror a beat too late. Illusion designer Chris Fisher’s effects are executed with such precision that you soon stop trying to work out how they are done. It all means that, as James and Lou’s experiences worsen and they call in a psychic, the scares escalate brilliantly from startling to genuinely horrifying.
Fanning and Okumura Jones bring an easy, believable chemistry to James and Lou, grounding the supernatural goings-on in a relationship that feels increasingly under strain. As Lou grows more unsettled, Fanning is particularly compelling as James desperately tries to hold things together. A video call with his mother, Carolanne (Pippa Winslow), leads to one of the evening’s most chilling moments. Without giving anything away, it is a scene that stayed with me long after leaving the theatre, proving that the most effective horror often lies in what the imagination is left to fill in.
There are flashes of wit in Holloway’s script, but some of the evening’s best comedy comes from the audience itself: the yelps, muttered “oh God”s and ripples of nervous laughter that turn individual terror into something oddly communal. A couple of early scenes do linger longer than necessary, and the occasional eerie occurrence passes without quite enough acknowledgement from the characters. Yet these are minor frustrations in a production that understands how to sustain suspense.
Expertly crafted and packed full of terror, Paranormal Activity is a compelling demonstration of what live horror can do. Its greatest trick is not simply making you jump, but making you question what you have seen, what you have missed and what might be lurking just beyond your field of vision.
Get tickets for Paranormal Activity in London and on tour – www.paranormalonstage.com/
Title image by Matt Crockett
Leave a Reply