Paranormal Activity West End Reviews Round-up – Ambassadors Theatre London

"This fright night leaves you spellbound and spooked"

"With expert direction and eye-catching stagecraft, the tension is ramped up in a play inspired by the film franchise"

"By treating horror as an art form rather than a cheap set of jump scares, this thrilling new show, which wears its connection to the world of the Paranormal Activity film franchise lightly, proves how jaw-clenchingly, arm-clutchingly frightening horror on stage can be."

"Under the direction of Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett, the in-the-moment fear is acute. But what is remarkable, thanks to Chris Fisher’s eye-popping illusions, is how that terror is accompanied by a giddy, awe-filled delight at the devilry we just witnessed – and how the hell they made it work."

"The script may be perfunctory, and some of it is deeply hammy, but its flaws are forgivable for such a dexterous production, with every technical element ramping up tension and toying with expectations."

"This West End stage outing for the horror franchise is shockingly good"

"... in some ways the fact that Fly Davis’s set is nothing but the couple’s mundane two-storey house captures the genre’s claustrophobia nicely: did something just move in that corner?"

"We’ve been asked not to spoiler, so I won’t, but key to the production – even more so than Levi Holloway’s smartly constructed script – is that it’s directed by Felix Barrett from immersive legends Punchdrunk. He practically wrote the book on creepily atmospheric theatre"

"There’s some pretty jaw-dropping stuff I’d best not even obliquely describe. But on the whole it avoids manipulative jump scares in favour of unnerving moments of rug pulling"

"Again, it’s not Shakespeare: Holloway’s dialogue is shallow in terms of characterisation, but it constitutes an expertly wrought puzzle box."

"It’s a slick, self-contained two hours of mounting terror that, as much as anything else, serves as a showcase for the type of tricks a great creative team can accomplish in a theatre"

"... Paranormal Activity is about as good as stage horror gets."

"This play is as terrifying as the film"

"Immersive theatre pioneers Punchdrunk bring all the jumpscares of the cult movie about a young couple hounded by ghosts to the Ambassadors Theatre in London"

"... Felix Barrett, Punchdrunk’s pioneer of underworldly immersive theatre, who here deploys a full range of disorientating, rationality-defying effects to summon the terror wattage of the original."

"Where the scariest moments of the film lie in recorded footage, here Barrett leans fully into the live experience, and it pays off."

"As the evening builds the shrieks intensify with shower curtains or doors opened to investigate the causes of unexplained noises."

"Chris Fisher’s stunning illusions prove the coup de grâce, challenging the pelvic floor as much as the mind. Gareth Fry’s soundscape floods the theatre with sonorous rumblings."

"Paranormal Activity on stage will make you jump in your seat"

"Punchdrunk’s reworking of the original horror film is a spook-a-thon mounted with devious technical finesse"

"The Ambassadors Theatre gets very dark, very fast, to prepare its audience for an evening of terror."

"... directed by Felix Barrett from immersive theatre specialists, Punchdrunk – is a spook-a-thon mounted with devious technical finesse. Surrounded by gasps, nervous giggles, and people jerking back in their seats, you won’t know what’s coming next."

"Levi Holloway’s script, which started life at the Leeds Playhouse in 2024, is a well-honed contraption, concentrating on the dark secrets within a marriage, not just the external forces tormenting them."

"The story works pretty well – but it’s essentially an engine to spring nasty surprises on the audience. In the best tradition of spooky theatre at this time of year, it sends you out huddling in your coat before you’ve even left the building."

"The scariest show on the West End?"

"Punchdrunk director Felix Barrett conjures frights aplenty with this stage adaptation of the supernatural film franchise"

"If you enjoy the deliciously creepy feeling of your hair stirring on your tightening scalp in anticipation of terror, Paranormal Activity is the show for you."

"... Barrett uses the full armoury of stage frights, from crash blackouts and sudden blaring rock music, to jump scares wrought through sound and lighting effects, to put the willies up us. He also has a superlative talent for misdirection. "

"I won’t give away any of Fisher’s clever illusions, but I will say they make for proper leap-out-of-your-skin moments"

"James gives a strong performance as the withdrawn and troubled Lou, and Heusinger is equally good as the mansplaining Jamie"

"A thrilling theatrical take on the horror movie franchise"

"Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett creates an unsettling, often terrifying show at the Ambassadors Theatre, London"

"... now here is Felix Barrett, best known as the pioneering director of immersive Punchdrunk shows, with a brilliantly terrifying stage response to the popular Paranormal Activity film franchise."

"Theatre, of course, doesn’t have the same special effects at its disposal as the screen. But it does have something even more powerful: the audience’s imagination responding in real time."

"Barrett and writer Levi Holloway make ingenious use of that fact. Their show (first seen in Leeds and then the US) avoids the “found footage” technique of the films and instead ramps up stealthily the live and contagious sense of dread."

"But what’s really unnerving is the play’s core idea — key to both plot and staging — that we bring our own ghosts with us."

"It’s rich, unsettling territory and Holloway keeps you guessing, while Heusinger and James give subtly shifting performances that continually muddy the water."

"The deep moral and psychological issues, when we get to them, are so weighty that they could do with a more complex treatment. But this is still a thrilling, chilling evening: a cracking ghost story so skilfully delivered by the creative team that it is all too liable to follow you home."

"Truly terrifying experience"

"Stage version of the hit supernatural horror franchise is a nerve-shredding success"

"The chills of the big screen are expertly translated to the stage by writer Levi Holloway and director Felix Barrett in this story set in the supernatural world of the hit Paranormal Activity horror film franchise."

"Holloway has wisely shorn his play of the increasingly elaborate demonic mythology of Oren Peli’s found-footage film series."

"Shifting the story to a rainy UK isn’t just a way to appeal to British audiences; it also cleverly serves to further isolate the couple in a place where nothing is fully familiar. Holloway also takes his time to build up the complexities of James and Lou’s relationship"

"Heusinger nicely shades in the narcissism and golden-boy entitlement that sits alongside the surface charm of his character and blinds him to the danger he is in. Meanwhile, James brings a deeply rooted sense of anger and frustration to the ostensibly quieter, introspective and more fragile Lou."

"When the supernatural is finally unleashed on us, it’s spectacularly handled by illusionist Chris Fisher. The set pieces have you jumping in your seat, but they’re never cheap scares."

"It’s a truly terrifying experience."