Category: scare acting
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Why Your Brain Loves Being Scared (and Keeps Coming Back for More)
Think about how strange this really is. Every fall, millions of people voluntarily hand over their money to walk into a dark building where strangers in masks have one job: to terrify them. They scream, they run, they grab the nearest arm. And then, gasping and laughing, they immediately say the same thing. “Let’s go…
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7 Mistakes Every First-Year Scare Actor Makes (and How to Avoid Them)
Nobody walks into their first season knowing how to do this job. Everybody makes mistakes, including me, including every veteran you will ever work beside. That is not the problem. The problem is that most first-year actors make the exact same seven mistakes, and nobody tells them until they have already spent half a season…
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10 Secrets Hidden in Plain Sight at Every Haunted Attraction
You have walked through haunted houses your whole life and you have probably never noticed most of what is actually happening around you. That is by design. A well-built attraction hides its machinery right out in the open, where you look directly at it and never once register what it is doing to you. I…
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What Casting Directors Are Actually Watching During a Haunt Audition
Every fall, right around the time the first pumpkin spice sign goes up, a wave of nervous people start typing the same question into their phones: “What do they look for at a haunted house audition?” If that is you, take a breath. I have sat on both sides of that audition table, and I…
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So You Want to Be a Scare Actor: Everything Nobody Tells You Before Your First Season
Every legend of the haunt started exactly where you are right now. Standing on the outside, watching the monsters do their thing, thinking, “I could do that. I want to do that.” The good news is that you probably can. Scare acting is a craft you can learn, not some gift you either have or…
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5 Psychological Tricks Haunted Attractions Use to Manipulate Your Brain
You paid money to be terrified. You handed over your ticket, walked through that door on purpose, and somewhere in the back of your mind you told yourself, “It’s not real, I’ll be fine.” And then you screamed anyway. That is not an accident. A great Haunted Attraction is not just a dark building full of…
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Anatomy of a Jump Scare: Why Timing Trumps Gore Every Single Time
Ask most people what makes a haunted house scary, and they’ll point to the blood. The severed limbs, the buckets of gore, the animatronic that rips its own face off. And sure, all of that has its place. But if you’ve ever wondered why one room leaves you shaking and the next one (with twice…