FEAR of death is what causes us to invent tales about the paranormal, claims Prof Philip Goodman in the opening of the Playhouse’s much anticipated new show.

It turns out, however, that there is something far more horrifying than that.

Fortunately that isn’t sitting through Jeremy Dyson’s and Andy Nyman’s spooky creation, Ghost Stories, a perfectly constructed piece of theatre that chills if not outright terrifies.

Its writers made much of keeping the plot, characters, soundtrack, cast and just about every other detail tightly under wraps.

This and the health warnings to ticket buyers with heart warnings, as well as uniformed nurses being spotted among the audience, has built up expectations of it being a seriously scary experience.

As a piece of entertainment it certainly delivered – mixing fairground ride tricks with psychological warfare and a vicious dark humour.

As Dr Goodman, Nyman provides the framework for the play – a lecture on parapsychology – that breaks into stories within the main plot as he reveals the reported ghostly encounters he has been most intrigued by.

There’s a security guard (David Cardy) who discovers something unpleasant on night duty and a teenager (Ryan Cage) disturbed by experiences in the woods. They are campfire ghost stories of the sort Dyson and Nyman bonded over as teenagers at Jewish summer school.

Dry ice creeps towards the audience and your initial sense of foreboding grows as the play builds to its final, disturbing conclusion.

League of Gentleman creator Dyson’s pedigree as a writer of creepy short stories comes out in the psychological side of the show – dark images wrapping tentacle-like around your mind, ready to return and disconcert you when you’re not expecting it.

Both playwrights’ love of magic, and particularly Nyman’s experience of creating TV and stage shows for illusionist Derren Brown, also come to the fore – drawing attention to references that later become significant without you realising he has taken control of the direction of your gaze.

There are also plenty of tongue-in-cheek allusions to cult horror films, including Don’t Look Now and The Ring, to reward die-hard fans of the genre.

And a stunningly sophisticated set moves the action seamlessly from place from place.

Although there are plenty of noises that go bump in the night, it’s the things you’re not shown that turn out to be the most frightening.

GHOST Stories is at the Playhouse until February 20.