Ghostbusting duo Max and Delia are back for more creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky thrills in Paranormal Inside, Prince Gomolivas’s just-in-time-for-Halloween follow-up to his 2022 East West Players hit The Brothers Paranormal.

 We last ran into Thai-American Max (David Huynh) when he and his older brother Visarut were enlisted to help African-American Delia (Tamika Simpins) bust the Thai-speaking ghost who’d been haunting her days and nights since Hurricane Katrina.

Several years have passed since then, eventful in that Max has married Thailand-born Bincy (Christine Corpuz), but uneventful as far as demonic possession is concerned, that is until the morning he wakes up to the disturbing news that he tried to strangle his pregnant wife while sleepwalking last night.

This unfortunate turn of events might easily be explained away if any of the most likely causes of Max’s parasomnia, aka the “weird sleep disorders” he’s been exhibiting, applied to him, but they don’t, leaving only one remaining possibility, that Max is being possessed by a spirit, ghost, or creature not of this earth.

Meanwhile, 280 miles from Sherman Oaks, Max’s former partner in ghostbusting finds herself leading a quiet life running a nondescript café far off the Las Vegas strip, or at least Delia’s life was quiet until her niece Tasha’s (Aja Hinds) lily-white fiancé Ethan’s (Davide Costa) arrival on her doorstep to investigate rumors of his future aunt-in-law’s paranormal past, a potential deal-breaker for his devout Catholic parents should they discover that not only has their son gotten his girlfriend preggers but that she’s closely related to a woman who “plays with the occult.”

Talk about a recipe for thrills and chills once Max and Delia have reconnected to exorcise whatever demon(s) or ghost(s) have possessed him, and never more so than when sound designer John Zalewski, lighting designer Brian Gale, visual effects designer Dominik Krzanowski, and projection designer David Murakami join creative forces to gasp-inducing effect.

 Audience members who missed The Brothers Paranormal need not experience FOMO since, sequel or not, Paranormal Inside works just fine as a stand-alone thriller, spiced like its predecessor with multiple tension-relieving laughs amidst the thrills and chills.

Jeff Liu returns to direct Gomolvilas’s latest with accustomed dramatic-comedic flair, and just as was the case with The Brothers Paranormal, dynamite duo Huynh and Simpkins deliver a pair of powerhouse star turns that allow each of them to stretch their dramatic muscles like they’ve rarely been stretched before, and in Huynh’s case, to simulate demonic possession so authentically, it can’t help but leave him physically drained.

A terrific Christine Corpuz returns to EWP fifteen years after sharing the stage with Huynh in Gomolvilas’s Mysterious Skin as a woman whose love for her husband is tested in the most frightening of ways.

Recent UCLA Musical Theater grad Costa proves himself a quirky charmer as the in-over-his-head Ethan without needing to sing a note, the lovely Hinds makes an auspicious EWP debut as the spunky, determined Tasha, and Filipino-American stage legend Isaac proves he’s still got what it takes to captivate an audience as he has done for nearly all of East West Players’ sixty years of existence.

Randy Wong-Westbrook’s set transforms ingeniously into four or five different locales while allowing the aforementioned designers to work their supernatural wonders, with additional topnotch design contributions by Janel “JJ” Javier (costumes), Rye Mandel (properties), and Ashphord Jacoway (hair and makeup).

 Paranormal Inside could probably benefit from ten or so minutes worth of judicious dialog trims before it arrives at the next stop on its three-city rolling world premiere, but even as is, it makes for a fun thrill ride, and there’s no denying the powerful emotional punch of its time-traveling epilogue.

Josh Bennett is assistant director. Ryan Beaghler, Ace Christensen, Ratana, and Dekontee Tucrkile are understudies. Brandon Hong Cheng is stage manager and Irene DH Lee is assistant stage manager.

 Maddi Deckard and and Lia Weed are associate sound designers. Ariya Selvakumar is assistant projection designer. Cesar Cipriano is fight choreographer . Shinshin Yuder Tsai is intimacy director. Bill Ballou is technical director. Alayna Jacqueline is dramaturg. Siwaraya Rochanahusdin is language and culture consultant. Davidson & Choy Publicity are press representatives.

 I’ve been a Prince Gomolvilas fan since even before his inspired adaptation of Scott Heim’s haunting novel Mysterious Skin, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him back at East West Players for Paranormal Inside, a humdinger of a theatrical thrill ride if there ever was one.

East West Players, David Henry Hwang Theatre, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles.
www.eastwestplayers.org

–Steven Stanley
October 12, 2025
Photos: Andrew Ge

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: East West Players, Los Angeles Theater Review, Prince Gomolvilas