Paranormal Activity review

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, heightening the nightmarish impact of what happens to them. Much of their seemingly mundane chatter in the play’s early scenes rebounds with gleefully twisted significance when things literally go to hell later on. 

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. Their growing estrangement as their respective pasts break catastrophically into the present serves to ground the play’s descent into the supernatural in a fracturing relationship.

And Barrett, leveraging his atmosphere-creating ability as artistic director of immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, handles the ghostly goings-on brilliantly by constantly holding back. Anna Watson’s lighting turns the domestic detail of Fly Davis’s split-level set into a place of moving shadows. Blackouts accompanied by the deafening pitch of Gareth Fry’s sound design all serve to keep us perpetually on edge.

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. They are impressively accomplished and always tightly woven into the story, from a scary bait-and-switch to subtler but no less nerve-shredding moments of dread. It’s a truly terrifying experience.

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