Diary of a Haunter

We all love haunted houses, mazes, and hayrides, right? As guests, we only see what the actors want us to see. For a few minutes, we are in a fantasyland full of imagination, and it can be pretty scary.

For a few of us, this is our season. This is our life. We live for this season. We love being able to put on a show for the guests that come through our haunt.

But, sometimes, things can go downhill pretty quickly. From a health issue to someone being downright gross.

Here are a few things I have dealt with as a scare actor:

• Escorting a guest out of the house due to not being able to handle the fog. The fog can be pretty thick at times, making it hard to breathe.
• A guest needing assistance out of a room due to strobe lights.
• Being groped by guests who have had too much to drink. Also, gross comments and groping from guests who aren't intoxicated at all.

We, as actors, see a lot of different types throughout the night and definitely throughout the season. Although we do love this season and we do live for this type of work, it should never be OK to treat an actor disrespectfully. My philosophy is, why pay so much money to go through a haunt, if you all you are going to do is be disrespectful and rude?

Before I end up going on a rant, here is a little bit of advice for those who enjoy going to haunted attractions.

1. If you get scared easily and know you can't handle a haunted attraction, don't go through a haunt. You're going to have a bad time. I know everyone wants to be able to enjoy the season, but maybe a haunt isn't for you. Especially an enclosed attraction like a house. We care about your safety as much as ours and we can't have anyone getting hurt due to a knee jerk reaction one can't help.
2. Please don't drink in excess if you plan on going through an attraction. I personally don't care if you have a beer or two before you go in, but if you're drinking a 12-pack before you go in, you probably won't have a good time. Last season, we had a lady hitting the building and apologizing to the building itself before she even went in. Once she went through, she was being loud and obnoxious. That type of behavior is not fun for anyone. Definitely not fun for those in your group who wanted to be scared and have a good time.
3. If you have health issues that can be triggered by things like fog, strobes, or being scared, you might not want to go through. Fog can cause an asthma attack and strobes can cause a seizure. If you have heart issues, you could potentially have a heart attack. You might want to check out what the haunt includes before you go in.
4. Scare actors are people, just like you. The majority of scare actors don't appreciate gross comments or touching. Most haunts don't allow us to touch you or you to touch us. Please don't touch us, on purpose at least, and we won't touch you. Also, the gross comments such as "the things I would do to you" or "can I take you home?" are not appreciated nor are they funny. I may sound a little rude, but if you wouldn't say it to someone in your personal life, please don't say it to us. I actually had someone ask if they could grope me and proceed to put their hand down my shirt. That is what I am advising against.
5. If you see us before we do our thing, please don't point us out to everyone else in the room. It ruins the experience and thus ruins the fun of going through an attraction.
6. Please don't threaten the actors or use inappropriate language such as swearing. If you aren't enjoying yourself, chances are we are able to escort you out. All you have to do is say you aren't having a good time. If you get scared and say "oh, shit" that's not a big deal. But going through and yelling "fuck this, get away from me, you b*tch" you probably shouldn't have come through to begin with.

But, for now, that is it. This isn't me being a crazy lady who doesn't want people to have fun. This is me just putting my thoughts out there in hopes I will enhance the overall experience for everyone who goes through a haunted attraction. You don't necessarily have to listen to me at all; these are just a few things I have been through as an actor that I mainly didn't really appreciate personally. I may just not quite know how to go about putting my thoughts out there as this is my very first blog post, but I just want people to enjoy themselves every time.

If you read through this, thank you for reading. I really do appreciate it.

Have a spooky day.