October is my favorite month of the year! Not only is it my birthday month, but I get to have some spooky fun.
My celebration plans this year include dusting off the Monster Mash album while baking a special treat. Dracula Dentures sounded fun. I’ve added a link to the recipe at the end of this blog.
I’ll be joining my daughter and grandson trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. He’s four years old and will walk to one or two houses before requesting to ride in the wagon. In previous years, after we’d covered a couple of streets, he was ready to call it a night.
The excitement of knocking on doors wains quickly for him because he doesn’t like candy. I know, what kid doesn’t like candy? My grandson, that’s who. No cookies. No cake. No ice cream. Yes, I assure you he is human. You don’t realize how often you use food to bribe a child until you run across the REALLY picky eater.
Do you remember dressing up and going trick-or-treating as a kid? I was lucky. My mom sewed all my costumes. As an adult, I can appreciate the effort and love she put into my costumes.
I’ve tried my hand at sewing. How hard could it be? I’d seen my mom whip up fabulous things. After my shirt sleeve had somehow attached itself to a poor excuse for a skirt, I stepped away from the sewing machine. With humility, I admitted sewing was best left to those with talent. I ended up donating my sewing machine to a friend from the belly dance studio. I can hand stitch repairs, hem pants, sew buttons, and apply patches. But anything beyond that, I ask for help from the experts.
With my pillowcase in hand, I remember canvasing the neighborhood along with hordes of other children. Our neighborhood had dirt roads. Those years where rain tried but failed to ruin the fun, I put on my winter boots and splashed through the muddy streets. Nothing would keep me from my candy treasures. Every house on the street had their lights on and most neighbors knew me by name. Mrs. Mangus, who lived across the street, always handed out her signature homemade caramel popcorn balls. Ahh, those were the days.
While living in Florida, I’m fortunate to have a wide variety of scary options a short drive away, meaning amusement park special events. Let me give you a brief history of these events.
Universal Studios Halloween Horror nights started in Florida in 1991 as a three-night event. Over the years, it grew into an iconic event running every year (except for 2020 because of COVID). This year, the event runs for thirty nights.
Universal’s success spawned Busch Garden’s Howl-O-Scream in 1999 as Spooky Safari. It started as a family-friendly haunted jungle trail, a pumpkin patch, and face-painting for kids. It rebranded to Howl-O-Scream the following year with adult themed scares and horror. Where Universal focuses its scare houses and frights on popular horror movies or television shows, Howl-O-Scream creates original characters and scare house concepts.
When Mickey joined the spooky fun in 1995, Disney created Mickey’s not so Scary Halloween. It had Halloween themed activities but without the jump scares, DJs, and scare zones. This year they rebranded the event as Boo Bash. It’s an after hours event but remains a not-too-spooky event with trick-or-treating geared toward family friendly fun. Unlike the adult experiences at other parks, costumes are welcome at Disney.
Now, Busch Garden’s SeaWorld couldn’t let the mouse have all the fun scares, so it started Halloween Spooktacular in 2008 with its own family-friendly event. This year, they’ve rebranded the event to mirror Busch Garden’s Howl-O-Scream adult-themed event, complete with its own unique scare houses.
Howl-O-Scream is my favorite event because I worked as a scare actor for one season. After hearing from a friend how much fun she had at a scare actor audition for Howl-O-Scream, I set up an appointment. Her advice to me: scream A LOT.
On a Saturday afternoon, I sat in a room with over thirty other would-be scare actors. They called us in six at a time. We showed our jump-scare skills by using a paneled wall setup on one side of the room. Then they’d call out scenarios, and we acted out the scenes. Zombies are chasing you, you’re a shark chasing someone, what scares you the most is following you, and then the switcheroo – you are now what scares you the most. While continuously moving back and forth across the room, we switched from scenario to scenario.
When this part of the audition had ended, they asked us if we had any special skills to show. They didn’t require a special skill, but everyone in my group couldn’t wait to show off a special talent. One person performed back flips, while another displayed their contortion abilities. Not wanting to be left out as the only one without a special ability, I volunteered to dazzle the interviewers with Tae Kwon Do. After running through some kicking exercises, I returned to my seat, satisfied with my performance, and happy I had scheduled the audition.
After a short ‘here’s what’s next’ speech, they dismissed us to the waiting room. While taking a seat, I realized I hadn’t screamed at all during the scenarios portion of the audition. But that was fine because I came for the audition experience. I thought they would never hire me as a scare actor.
When they called me back to talk to the hiring manager, I expected the thanks-but-no-thanks talk. It shocked me when they offered me a job. And not just any job, but a coveted spot in that year’s up-charge house, The Experiment. In an up-charge house, customers purchased time slots to go through. It’s a more personal experience as compared to the normal conga line version of going through a scare house.
He handed me the computer’s mouse and told me to click accept or decline. I hadn’t thought about what I’d do if I received a job offer. How would I fit these late hours in with work and family? While throwing caution to the wind, I clicked accept. Things would work themselves out, right?
Over the next several weeks, I attended costume fittings, makeup classes, scare school (yep, that’s a thing), and staff onboarding meetings. When the rehearsals started, our small group of scare actors quickly formed a tight bond. Several of them were return actors from previous years. A few had boasted about having worked every Howl-O-Scream since it had started. They mentored me through my first days. And the super bonus… the scare actors experienced all the scare houses during dress rehearsal night!
I worked Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 6:30 pm until closing. For The Experiment house, closing meant the last appointment group had gone through the house. Most nights I worked until at least midnight; some nights were as late as 2 am.
After ending my day job at 4:30 pm, I struggled through rush hour traffic on I4 to make it to Busch Gardens by 6 pm. Around 4 pm, I’d put on my required black pants and shirt underneath my daytime work clothes since we had no changing rooms backstage. If you needed to strip down, you did it with the entire cast around you. No thanks, I’d pass on that.
Each night, freshly laundered costumes waited for us on a rack. I’d pull out the bloody lab coat with my name pinned to the collar and begin converting to my character. I didn’t have to use the make-up skills after all, since they had assigned me and the two guys working in my section of the house full-faced masks. We were in the last section, after the mad scientist wreaked havoc on the visitors.
Fridays were tough from lack of sleep. But I can proudly say I didn’t miss a day and always arrived on time.
At the end of the season, The Experiment crew went out to dinner. I feel fortunate to have met such a fantastic and talented group of people.
Was working in a scare house all fun and games? No, not at all. Some customers felt they need to bully the scare actors to prove something to themselves or the others in their party. Angry jocks had slammed me against the wall. I had my foot stomped on and an overwhelmed, screaming man pushed me to the ground while making his escape out of the emergency exit.
They had stationed me as the first point of contact in the scare room. Once customers moved past me, I scooted under a table to position myself as the last point of contact. I purchased knee pads after the first weekend to make this transition faster and less painful.
A fog machine ran constantly in my scare room. I’d have to step into another area of the house to breathe fresh air. My voice was raspy for over a month from screaming and the foggy air.
Managers closely monitored lunch and break times. Since we couldn’t walk in the park while in costume, the one place open for actors to purchase food always had a long line. I ended bringing non-refrigerated items and stashing them in a cupboard in my scare room until lunchtime. The Experiment had one scare actor for each position. With no one to take over if I needed a break, I had decided to simply not take any breaks. By the end of the night, I felt exhausted.
Would I do it again? Yes, absolutely.
So why do we like being scared? For me, my heart pounds, my senses seem more intense, and I’m ready to display my impressive split-second timing to avoid that monster jumping out of the bushes. This is the “adrenaline rush”.
In Today’s article, ‘Why do we like to be scared? The science behind the scream’ they talk about how the “adrenaline rush” from feeling threatened makes us feel stronger and more powerful. But the article presented a factoid I hadn’t considered before. When we know there’s no actual danger, such as in an amusement park’s scare house, you may experience an energy boost and mood enhancement. You’re grounded in the moment and worries about the past or future are temporarily gone, which is associated with feeling good. Exposure to these types of frights could help you build a better tolerance for stress.
So, get out there and get your scare on! It’s good for you.
References and links:
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a55668/dracula-dentures-recipe/
https://www.today.com/health/why-do-we-be-scared-science-behind-scream-t166133
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Mickey%27s_Not-So-Scary_Halloween_Party
