The Lowdown on Paranormal Activity Returning to the Ambassadors Theatre
Published on 28 July 2026
What is it?
A stage show inspired by the Paranormal Activity movies, the seven-strong movie franchise which began in 2007 with a movie originally shot for less than $15,000 but which was then picked up by DreamWorks and eventually netted almost $200 million.
Oh, so another screen to stage a nostalgia fest.
Don’t be too quick to judge. Writer Levi Holloway comes up with a new story but cleverly pays homage to the original as James and Lou try to leave behind the past and move from Chicago to the UK, only to discover that, however lightly you pack, you can’t ever leave your ghosts behind.
I was unlucky enough to see The Exorcist on stage, and it certainly left my head spinning at just how bad it was, and more recently The Enfield Haunting was hardly a great advertisement for things that go bump in the night. Maybe we should just accept that horror on stage is always a bit naff.
No, really, this is pretty classy stuff and well worth your time. It’s not Shakespeare, but not all theatre has to be Shakespeare, and this is cleverly executed entertainment which racks up the tension with impeccable skill. Fly Davis's design offers a box of tricks which is then used smartly for Chris Fisher’s illusions; Gareth Fry’s sound design is just so, and it’s directed with real technical aplomb by Felix Barrett.
Felix Barrett? The guy who runs the immersive outfit, Punchdrunk?
One and the same. Which is interesting because there is much to suggest that all of Punchdrunk’s large-scale shows are an exercise in creating atmosphere and tension with clever technical effects. In a Punchdrunk show, rooms, even the apparently empty ones, are haunted whether by absence or by the ghosts of those who come before. Punchdrunk’s shows play on a loop in which sequences are repeated over the duration of several hours, so effectively the show ghosts itself. Oh, and of course almost 20 years ago Barrett made It Felt Like a Kiss for the Manchester International Festival, a show which turned rumbling anxiety into all-out terror. It’s the one and only time in the theatre when I’ve been chased by a man wielding an axe.
Count me out then; that kind of jump scare theatre holds absolutely no attraction for me.
I think you should reconsider. There are a couple of scary moments, but unlike others in the genre (I mean, even The Woman in Black is reliant on one quite brilliant jump scare), this isn’t a show which sees its sole purpose as making your heart beat faster. It is quieter and more unnerving than that. It is a show with a built-in delayed gratification mechanism. It genuinely confounds and surprises with its technical flair, and it is as much about the ghosts that haunt a marriage as any that haunt a house.
Talking about hauntings, what does the Ambassadors theatre’s ghost make of all these spooky shenanigans?
Actually, the Ambassadors doesn't have a ghost, which makes it something of a rarity amongst West End theatres, for whom at least one resident ghost is considered de rigueur.
The Ambassadors may not have a ghost, but since 2:22 A Ghost Story, the West End does seem pretty keen on entertaining as many ghosts as possible.
Yep, 2:22: A Ghost Story probably has quite a lot to answer for, but perhaps in an era following a pandemic it is no surprise that plays about death and hauntings are popular. When people have been closer to death, perhaps they seek to try to understand it. Shakespeare, writing at a time when death was all around him with the plague, wrote no less than five plays featuring ghosts (everyone knows Hamlet and Macbeth, but can you name the other three?). and Noel Coward wrote Blithe Spirit, a comedy about a haunting, at the height of the Blitz when death rained from the skies of London. Raising ghosts in the theatre might be a safe way of putting them to rest. In any case, theatre has a real affinity with ghosts, perhaps because every performance is haunted by all the ones that went before.
Don’t say
I’m haunted by the lack of found footage you get in the Paranormal Activity movies.
Do say
Of course, everyone knows that all theatre is just an illusion.
Paranormal Activity plays at the Ambassadors Theatre from 11 August to 7 November 2026.
By Lyn Gardner
Lyn Gardner is an acclaimed theatre journalist and former critic with decades of experience covering British theatre, from off-West End and fringe theatre to major West End productions.