‘Paranormal Activity’ Review: Only Nominally Related to the Blumhouse Horror Franchise, Haunted-House Show Ditches Hidden Cameras for Live Scares

Variety | 20.11.2025 03:38
After seven movies, the “Paranormal Activity” franchise doesn’t frighten audiences the way it once did — that is, through the power of suggestion, using home security cameras, smartphones and webcams to “capture” ghostly phenomena in seemingly innocuous suburban locations. While audiences have gotten wise to the films’ found-footage approach, the name still means something. That’s why it now comes attached to a thinly connected but thoroughly effective haunted-house show from “Sleep No More” director Felix Barrett, presented not as a play, but as “a new story live on stage.”