Entertainment

With immersive set design and chilling effects, the Broadway-bound production recreates the fear of the original film while adding a new live experience.

The lights go black. A voice echoes through the Emerson Colonial Theater.

Radio host and paranormal expert Etheline Cotgrave (Eva Kaminsky) tells the audience to close their eyes. To breathe.

Within seconds, an entire theater full of strangers begins breathing together, waiting for something terrifying to appear. 

And that is exactly the experience “Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live On Stage” creates: a room full of people collectively holding their breath, reacting to every creak, shadow, and sudden movement as a couple battles an unseen force. 

After several minutes of hearing Etheline Cotgrave’s voice guide the audience through the image of a ghost, the theater lights rise. The stage reveals the two-story London flat of Lou (Cher Álvarez) and James (Travis A. Knight), a couple who moved from Chicago hoping for a fresh start after Lou’s declining mental health and a series of unexplained events unraveled their lives. 

Based on the 2007 found-footage film “Paranormal Activity,” the stage adaptation follows Lou and James as they discover the supernatural forces they thought they escaped have followed them to their new home.

Written by Levi Holloway, the production arrives in Boston as its final stop before Broadway, with a creative team that includes Tony Award winner Chris Fisher, known for his special effects work on productions including “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” and director Felix Barrett.

“I hope I’m a little crazy because if this thing is real, then we’re not safe,” Lou says early in the play, referring to a fear the audience immediately shares. In the stage adaptation, the question is not only whether Lou and James are being haunted; it is whether the audience is about to experience the haunting alongside them.

While the original film relied on the intimacy of a camera capturing a couple’s private moments, the stage production faces the challenge of creating that same sense of vulnerability with hundreds of people watching at once. “Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage” succeeds by transforming the theater from a place where audiences observe fear into a place where they feel trapped inside it.

That illusion begins with the set. What could have been a simple haunted house becomes a fully lived-in London flat, filled with small details that make the space feel real: stained rags hanging from wall hooks, a crowded refrigerator, and family portraits lining the staircase.

Subtle technical details also quietly reinforce the realism. Headlights from passing cars flash through the windows, water runs from the sink, and wall lights turn on with the flip of a switch. None of these moments call attention to themselves, which is exactly what makes them effective. 

The illusion in which the audience believes they are experiencing the haunting in real-time with Lou and James would not work without convincing performances from Álvarez and Knight.

The pair ground the supernatural story in a relationship that feels authentic, connecting with the audience long before the hauntings escalate. Their conversations flow naturally, revealing cracks in their marriage that become just as compelling as the paranormal activity surrounding them. 

Álvarez delivers the production’s strongest performance, seamlessly shifting between a woman desperately trying to make sense of the unexplained and someone slowly losing control as the supernatural force tightens its grip. She never lets Lou become just another horror victim, as her fear and desperation feel painfully human.

Knight provides an effective counterbalance as James, a husband caught between skepticism and concern. His moments of comedic relief give the audience room to breathe before the next scare, while his growing fear mirrors the audience’s own realization that something is terribly wrong. 

FaceTime calls, viewed through a television screen mounted on the wall, between Lou, James, and James’ mother Carolanne (Shannon Cochran) provided much-needed comedic relief throughout the production. Cochran, who appears on screen for much of the production, fully embraces Carolanne’s personality as a devoutly religious, overprotective mother. Cochran’s perfectly timed, offbeat comments made Carolanne both frustrating and funny — as she puts it, “I said my piece, so I can rest my peace.”

The production’s special effects build on the actors’ performances rather than overshadow them: A shadow quietly lifts itself from a blanket as the couple sleeps. A corner of the kitchen window suddenly shatters. Clever stunt work creates the illusion of Lou collapsing unnaturally to the floor after becoming possessed.

Instead of relying only on loud noises or predictable horror tropes, the production uses the full space of the set — from subtle movements in the background to perfectly timed jump scares and choreographed stunt doubles — to make the supernatural feel like it is invading an otherwise ordinary home.

Not every moment is equally effective. As the play progresses, some scene endings begin to follow a familiar rhythm: a chilling line from Lou, a booming sound effect, then a blackout before the next scene. After several repetitions, the formula becomes somewhat predictable, lessening the impact of what should be the production’s biggest shocks.

By the end of the show, it’s clear the production finds its success by capturing something many horror adaptations struggle to achieve: a sense of shared fear. Like watching a horror movie with friends, every jump scare is followed by gasps, screams, and nervous laughter rippling through the audience.

By the final curtain, “Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage” proves that horror does not lose its power when it leaves the screen. If anything, experiencing those scares alongside hundreds of strangers makes them even more unforgettable.

“Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage” will be playing at the Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston through Thursday, July 30. Tickets start at $120 and can be purchased here. 

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