Paranormal Activity on Broadway review: Freaky horror show conjures real terror

Two hours and 10 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.At the August Wilson Theatre.Broadway shows often frighten me. Unfortunately they usually aren’t trying to. So how refreshing and invigorating it is to watch a truly legitimate go at the horror genre onstage in the form of the new play “Paranormal Activity,” which opened Tuesday night at the August Wilson Theatre.Some of you are probably unshakable and won’t get so much as a rogue goosebump.

But, hey, the show certainly freaked me out.As it did most of the audience.People screamed and jumped in unison just as they would at the cinema.

It’s a lot of fun.At times, the spookiness is electric.

And, far from creeping into deadly theme-park territory, patrons’ loud vocalizing comes from a rare and intense engagement.They’re riveted.  That’s fantastic.

If it’s OK to howl at “Oh, Mary!”, why not shriek at “Paranormal Activity”?Director Felix Barrett, the man partly responsible for “Sleep No More,” conjures genuine dread as we await the clever terrors that are to come.You may find yourself fixating on the shadowy upstairs bedroom or at the closed bathtub curtain, worried about what demons lurk behind it.Normally a director would prefer viewers to focus on, well, the actors.

But the house by designer Fly Davis, at once modern and rotting, is as much a character as the poor married couple who have just moved in.Just about everything onstage has an ulterior motive.

Neither plate nor pillow should ever be fully trusted.The spouses who don’t know what they’ve got coming are James (Travis A.Knight) and Lou (Cher Álvarez), Americans who’ve moved from Chicago to London for James’ job.

Also, it’s gradually revealed, they’re fleeing turbulent pasts.  Then — spoiler alert? — strange occurrences start to go down in the living room and kitchen: lights flicker, a door knock comes from an invisible fist, a window beckons, spooky shadows out of “Peter Pan” wander the wal...