A Day In The Life Of A Scare Actor
Image Source: WTVR
Halloween is upon us. It’s starting to get colder, people are shopping for their costumes, and horror and spooks are a huge focus of this season. One popular tradition is going to “haunted” attractions to intentionally get scared, and a large part of these attractions are the people that scare the guests. These people are called scare actors. A lot goes into each night of scaring, so let’s dive into the world of scare actors and scare acting!
I’m Connor Terrell, and I have been a scare actor for Kings Dominion’s Halloween Haunt since 2019 and got my start in their Lockdown maze, which was prison-themed. Currently, I am the ghostly concierge of the Darkside Manner in their Condemned maze, a role that I had in 2021 as well. Scare acting is a lot of fun, and this, in addition to the community built around the whole Haunt family, is why I return year after year. So let me give you a glimpse of my day-to-day life working as a scare actor at Kings Dominion’s Halloween Haunt.
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A lot of work goes into the attraction even before the park opens back up for the season. After all the monsters have been cast and placed in their areas, we have two weeks of rehearsals. First, a preliminary orientation goes over the basics of working at the park and scaring, an out-of-costume location rehearsal, and a final dress rehearsal at our location. Throughout this process, we are coached by our lead monster, our talent coach, and our supervisor. During this time, we begin to explore our characters and get a feel for scaring in our environment.
Here’s what a typical day looks like. I arrive each day at 2pm, check-in, and pick up my costume. After changing out of my street clothes and into my ghostly attire, it’s time for makeup. All of our makeups are done by professional makeup artists in a timely manner. In years past, we were each assigned a makeup artist, but this year, we have a makeup time window and get whichever artist is available, which can lead to some interesting variations in how my face looks each day. No matter who does it, the goal is to make me look as scary and disgusting as possible while staying true to the vision of the maze. In Condemned, our characters are more like spirits than zombies or actual corpses. However, that does not stop our artists from pouring on the blood, and we love them for it! When in doubt, add more blood!
After I am made up into the ghostly concierge, there’s a long period where I don’t necessarily have to be anywhere. I use this time to eat dinner, work on coursework for my Master’s Degree, chat with fellow monsters, and write articles for CultureSlate, of course! Finally, at around 5pm, I make my way to our green room within the maze to get ready for warmups. Scaring is extremely physically and vocally intense, so it’s essential that we prepare our bodies for it. Once warmed up, we relax until about five minutes before our maze opens at 6pm. Some monsters are assigned their break at this time, while others take their break during the night. Once we go to our places, it’s showtime!
There are multiple ways to scare a guest. The most obvious is to pop out from a shadowy area, but there are other types of scares as well, such as pretending to be one of the mannequins placed in your assigned room, acting strangely in front of a guest before doing another pop scare, intimidating the guest, and using levels. There is one golden rule within Haunt, and that is “Don’t touch the monsters. The monsters won’t touch you.” We are not to put our hands on a guest, and they are not to put their hands on us. Other than that, we pretty much have free reign on how we scare each guest.
The critical thing to keep in mind as we scare is to always try to tell the story of the maze. For example, Condemned’s story is about a wedding at the Darkside Manor hotel that went incredibly wrong and resulted in the whole wedding party and even the hotel staff being killed. As such, our scares are peppered with references to the hotel and the wedding. We scare for four to five hours each night, and plenty of guests come through the maze. Some even come back on the same night, so the pressure is on to keep the energy up and the scares fresh each time. Seeing each guest’s reaction is admittedly quite hilarious, but the joy I get from scaring is more than just hearing the screams of the guests. It’s telling the story of the maze and stretching my talents as an actor.
At the end of the night, we go back into the green room and do some cool-down stretches as we de-brief. The adrenaline is still coursing through our veins as we prepare to go home. Once our talent coach, our lead monster, and our supervisor all give us their notes, we are free to leave to get out of our costumes and makeup, turn our costumes in, and go home to shower, rest up, and get ready to do it all over again the next day. I love working as a scare actor at Kings Dominion. Not only do I get to make money acting each weekend, but I build friendships and bonds that can last a lifetime. Though it can sometimes take a toll on you physically, mentally, and even emotionally, the rush I get from trying to find new and creative ways to scare each guest and work with my fellow monsters to create this eerie environment is thrilling. So, this Halloween season, revel in the spooks and go to a haunt. Who knows? You may even see me lurking in the shadows and asking if you have a room reservation for the Dark Side Manor.
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