"Paranormal Activity" brings horror to the stage in Boston before it heads to Broadway

You don't usually hear gasps and screams from an audience watching a play. But "Paranormal Activity" isn't your typical stage show.

The production, inspired by the popular movie series, is basically a horror movie come to life.

Actor Travis A. Knight, who portrays James, says, "It's a wonderful challenge to try to make people disappear and scare people and do all sorts of things on stage in front of a live audience. It's wonderful."

Knight and co-star Cher Álvarez, who plays Lou, tell the story of a couple who just moved from Chicago to London, only to discover the spooky things that made them leave may have followed them.

"One of the greatest things about the show is that it's pulled in such a younger audience," Álvarez  said. "And also we've had repeated guests come back and forth because people love horror. It's a very popular genre and we have a lot of first time theatergoers."

Knight adds, "We're live. There's nowhere to hide. We get to do this thing in front of all these folks and scare people in the seats."

Fans of the "Paranormal Activity" film franchise need to know this piece looks very different from the movies.

"There's no really found video footage that we're executing here," Álvarez explains, "but it's very much like, we're gonna scare the s--- out of you, because of certain things that we're doing on stage."

Lights and sound help create the mood.

"There's an art," Knight said. "There's a stagecraft to what we do up there. This is probably one of the most technical shows I've ever been a part of."

Álvarez adds, "I was never expecting to do a show with that kind of reaction from an audience and having to really hold for the fright and the laughter, but like a genuine like fearful laughter that it's just different than, 'Oh that's funny'. It's like, 'Oh my God, what's going to happen?' It's a tension."

And Knight says, "Our shows are really sort of like, they're not driven by, but they're deeply influenced by the audiences that we have each night. We're still going do the show that we do, but the audiences bring an energy to this thing that is really infectious and intoxicating."

"Paranormal Activity" is at the Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston through July 30.

From here, the production heads straight to Broadway with performances starting on Aug. 14.