Paranormal Activity Reviews: What the Critics Say
It opened at the Ambassadors Theatre on 5 December 2025, booked for twelve weeks. It has been extended five times since, and was nominated for the 2026 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play.
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The Critics' Verdict
Almost every critic gave it four stars. The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, the Financial Times, the Evening Standard, The Stage, Time Out and WhatsOnStage all landed there. BroadwayWorld gave it two, and was the only real dissent.
The Times called it "as terrifying as the film" and singled out Chris Fisher's illusions as "the coup de grâce". The Financial Times called it "a brilliantly terrifying stage response" and closed on it being "all too liable to follow you home". The Telegraph called it "a spook-a-thon mounted with devious technical finesse", adding that "it sends you out huddling in your coat before you've even left the building".
The Guardian's Kate Wyver wrote that it "proves how jaw-clenchingly frightening horror on stage can be", and closed her review describing waking at 3am and pulling the duvet over her head.
What the Reviews Praised
The stagecraft, almost without exception. Chris Fisher's illusions, Gareth Fry's sound and Fly Davis' two-storey set were named in review after review, along with Felix Barrett's control of tension.
Time Out was specific about the method: the show "avoids manipulative jump scares in favour of unnerving moments of rug pulling, where what you assumed was happening in a scene is revealed to be horrifyingly off the mark". WhatsOnStage described "an unsettling live experience you won't soon forget". The Stage called it "a nerve-wracking success".
Several critics noted what the Ambassadors itself contributes. At 410 seats it is one of the smallest theatres in the West End, and the scale of a two-storey house on that stage was repeatedly described as part of the unease.
Where Reviews Were Mixed
The criticism was consistent, and it was all about the script.
BroadwayWorld's Franco Milazzo gave it two stars and put the objection plainly: "Horror relies on empathy, and it's hard to care about people when the script seems barely acquainted with them itself." Matt Wolf at LondonTheatre, who publishes without a star rating, found some of the tricks "mighty familiar by now" and the writing paint-by-numbers in places, while still rating the leads: they "chart their shared uncertainty appealingly and well".
This criticism is not confined to the low scores. Time Out, at four stars, called the dialogue shallow in characterisation while praising the plot as "an expertly wrought puzzle Box". The Guardian, also at four, called the script "perfunctory" and some of it "deeply hammy", then judged the flaws forgivable given what the production does around them. The Financial Times, at four, said the play's moral and psychological questions "could do with a more complex treatment".
Audiences have been more enthusiastic than the critics, sitting at 4.5 out of 5 across several hundred verified reviews, which is consistent with a show whose weaknesses are in the writing and whose strengths are in the fear.
The reviews are from December 2025 and the company has changed since, which makes no difference to any of the above.
Is Paranormal Activity Right for You?
Yes if you want to be frightened in a theatre, you are interested in what stage illusions and sound design can do, or you want a night out that is not a musical. Knowing the films is not required.
Think twice if you need characters to care about, if sudden loud noise and long stretches of darkness are difficult for you, or if you are bringing someone under 15.
Book Paranormal Activity Tickets
Paranormal Activity runs at the Ambassadors Theatre until 2 January 2027, with eight performances a week. Tickets from around £27, all-in: the price you see is what you pay.
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Sources
The Times · The Daily Telegraph · The Guardian · Financial Times · Evening Standard · The Stage · Time Out · WhatsOnStage · LondonTheatre · BroadwayWorld · West End Wilma · London Theatre Reviews · Radio Times