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Found footage horror classic Paranormal Activity isn’t necessarily the most obvious candidate for a stage adaptation: Oren Peli’s film is famously based upon largely static camera shots as it traces the calamitous misadventures of a couple who move in together only to have their should-be domestic idyll disrupted by some sort of demonic presence.
But if there’s anyone who can make this sort of thing work in the theatre it’s Felix Barrett, who as the driving force behind immersive theatre gods Punchdrunk has specialised in making impossible possible in a very creepy way for almost a quarter century now.
Written by US playwright Levi Holloway – who scored a solid Broadway hit with the similarly spooky Grey House – it’s a heavily reimagined version of the story, that sees Chicago couple James and Lou move to London only to discover that something dark has followed them.
The show premiered in Leeds last summer: press weren’t invited but word of mouth for the run seems strong, and it’ll have an autumn tour of the US before settling into the West End for a 12-week limited season, where it’ll replace the shutting Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Horror doesn’t always work in the West End – it wasn’t so long ago that the Ambassadors Theatre played host to the execrable Catherine Tate vehicle The Enfield Haunting – but the signs are there that this should be satisfyingly chilling.
Paranormal Activity is at the Ambassadors Theatre, Dec 5-Feb 28. To book tickets now, click here.
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