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- “You’re not just popping out and back in, you have to do improv. You’re on stage and they have to see you for an extended period of time.”—Fear Factory co-owner Heidi Dunfield
If you've never had the opportunity to appear as a haunt actor at a haunted attraction—and that's probably most of the people reading this—you're missing out on a type of seasonal employment and sensory experience that's a bit hard to explain. The evenings are all different, yet still based on a certain flow.
Arriving at the venue, you join the ranks of good-natured, upbeat folks who are readying themselves for the evening through the use of makeup, wigs, prosthetic devices, masks and no shortage of torn-and-tattered clothing.
As the opening hour draws near, you're given instructions and assignments, sent to specific scenes within the attraction, with set tasks to do while in that space for the next several hours. And as a group lead walks through the space, hyping everyone up along the way, you realize that customers are going to be walking through your zone shortly, huddling together and wanting—really wanting—to be frightened, shocked, scared.
Once the night begins, your actions repeat themselves: actors jump out of secluded, dark corners; animatronics crackle; "spooky music" loops become the soundtrack; and screams alert you to the next guests' momentary arrival.
Needless to say: it's all a blast.
And for some folks in Salt Lake City, nights spent working at haunts can become an annual thing. For fans of horror and Halloween, haunted attractions are a great side gig in September and October, with many actors returning year after year to take part in the organized madness of these spaces.
City Weekly spoke to folks at two of Salt Lake City's leading haunted attractions, getting their unique take on what they seek in actors and what types of folks are well-suited to one of the strangest gigs you could hope to find every autumn. And yes, you'll find even introverts within the mix.
As Fear Factory's Heidi Dunfield says: "There're a lot of shy people in our cast. But once they get the costume and makeup on, they can come out of their shell."
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- Behind the scenes at Salt Lake City’s Nightmare on 13th.
Nightmare on 13th
Phil Wright is a mainstay at Nightmare on 13th, part of a two-haunt operation that also includes the Institute of Terror. He's among those that are around the business through all four seasons.
"We basically have a staff, including the owner, that's an eight-person group year round," Wright said. "The owner is here during our peak and the rest of us all have our specialty departments. We all shift into different roles as the season becomes close. I'm in marketing and business development, then I take over the retail and front-of-house operations, such as ticketing, while the tech and build team takes over operations. The creative team moves into the personnel team."
By that point, the work that takes place all year is largely complete: sets have been built or refined from previous years; flooring might be repaired, holes in walls patched (unless those defects are intentional); and animatronics have been run through testing. The bones of the operation are there and the crucial ingredient of staffing is the main thing that now occupies a good chunk of time.
Casting means bringing in some 100 to 150 seasonal employees, all of them moving through a process that's not unlike a lot of other jobs. Calls for workers go out, interviews are held with candidates, training sessions are scheduled. Calendars are made, with up to "70, 80, even 90 people" on hand during peak weekend nights, when the paying audience swells.
"A lot of it depends on their interest and availability," Wright said of the employees, noting that some will slot into a weekly shift—or several—while others essentially make this their nightly gig for the season.
"We have close to a 50% retention rate," he reported. "People drop off every year, but other people have been here 20 years as seasonal employees. Others have been over 10, and tons have been here over five."
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- “It’s a business, but at the end of the day our management chats with them, we hang out, we cook for them, we throw parties. We feel that it’s one, big team.”—Nightmare on 13th’s Phil Wright.
A culture has to be established and Wright says that mutual respect, from the start of the annual process, is critical.
"We're about diversity and inclusion and don't tolerate drama," he said. "A lot of that crap is squashed at the very beginning. It's a business, but at the end of the day our management chats with them, we hang out, we cook for them, we throw parties. We feel that it's one, big team."
Haunted attractions, of course, vary wildly in their approaches to the scare game. Some rely more on the theatrical abilities of their staff. Others are popular due to the simple built environment—the overall "spooky" vibes of the place.
As varied rooms and sections highlight different themes or scares, there are always areas to which actors are drawn. At Nightmare, the idea is that people should be able to work their way into roles and scenarios, which sometimes means having a starring role in a prime section, sometimes not.
"It's definitely not a veteran's choice; the casting director looks at a variety of factors," Wright said. "Somewhat it's about seniority. But if someone's killing it in a certain role, it's a no-brainer to keep them in it, make the show look the best it can. People will get a variety of roles and if someone wants one, they'll at least get a shot at the role. The stars, though, are going to be the stars. If you get one of the better roles, it's because you're one of the best performers."
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- Fear Factory patrons react to a cast member’s performance.
At Nightmare, the main haunt keeps performers locked into their specific rooms, while Institute of Terror's smaller cast is able to roam and engage audience members a bit more freely. Even with that freedom, Nightmare has certain parameters of behavior. Cast members aren't allowed to curse and actual, physical contact is a no-no; that's true of audience members touching the cast, as well, though in the confines of a tight space that can inadvertently occur. Which can, on very rare occasions, lead to a confrontation.
"Part of our training is our telling people that you can disengage and disappear," Wright remarked. "Obviously, if it escalates into a conflict, our actor leads are our first security people. There are cameras on all of our actors, across every zone. Someone's watching those and an actor can give hand signals to the camera. There are security staffers and police officers on-hand. I think a lot of people feel safer knowing that, even in a haunted house, you're being watched for the safety of guests and actors, both. We don't want anything bad to happen to anybody."
But these are rare moments, Wright explained. Most of the time spent with customers is a simple transaction: as an actor, you're there to scare the customer—over and over as the hours pass.
"Whether you're a 20-year veteran or a newbie, you're here to make people scream," Wright said. "We tell you to hydrate and eat well, come ready, then pace yourself. On busy nights, you're scaring for five hours or more. We have breakers that go through the haunted house to give you 10 minutes to breathe and relax."
And as for those introverted cast members, Wright adds that, perhaps surprisingly, many actors fit that description.
"There are a lot of roles that are not speaking," he said. "You jump up, use shakers, noise makers, then you disappear. There are a lot of ways to express yourself."
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- Fear Factory lights up for a season of scares.
Fear Factory
It's a known thing: Fear Factory's not just a haunted attraction. It is, by many accounts, legitimately haunted.
Dunfield, a co-owner of the space, spends a fair bit of time in the facility, sometimes alone.
"We have a company called Grimm Ghost Tours, who come in and do ghost hunts for the public," she said. "This is one of the most haunted places in Salt Lake. I haven't done ghost hunts in a while and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I did. The times, for me, when it's most creepy is when I'm in here all by myself. When I'm walking through with actors and guests it's one thing—but being here alone is another level of creepy."
The venue's reputation has made it a regular hit with paranormal enthusiasts and media content creators, drawing attention from the likes of Discovery's Ghost Adventures, among others.
Dunfield said the mystique of the Fear Factory is one major appeal in it drawing a large cast every season.
"We get all walks of life," she related. "It's crazy, because when they all come together at showtime, no one cares about your background. You might have someone professional working with another cast member who just graduated from high school. And they just get along, these people who wouldn't even be talking to each other in real life."
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- Employees prepare for a shift at Fear Factory.
With an intricate system of "zones" and "districts," Fear Factory puts a premium on every nook and cranny of the place pulsing with life. That can mean animatronics and set design, of course, but it's human performers who add the extra fuel every fall. Getting a big, diverse cast together is a long process and begins well before the season's kickoff in the autumn.
"We start in February, usually getting our leaders assembled," Dunfield said. "There's a lot of leadership training, doing things like ropes courses up at Camp Tuttle. And then, starting early in July this year, we do our interview days. Depending on how they do, we take them in and do a hands-on approach, see if they can scare inside the house."
Those who move through the process arrive for a fall season in which a good amount of holdovers are on the crew from previous seasons.
"It varies, but I would say in year's past, it's been close to 70% retention," Dunfield said. "I've gotten a little bit pickier about cast over the past three years. We offer a large bonus to those who work through the season. Then it's pretty basic stuff: you can't no-show and you can't quit altogether and get the bonus. This filters out the problem people from the year before. And most people do get the bonus."
Dunfield said that her team at Fear Factory works a bit differently than the ones at Nightmare on 13th and other comparable haunted attractions. Here, she said, an actor is typically assigned a character early on that they portray for the entire season.
"We do move them around, but only if someone's sick, then we'll shift people in that way," Dunfield noted. "We want them to have a backstory in their mind of how that character came to be and mostly people do get into whatever character they're assigned. Front line is where everyone wants to work, which requires a different type of performer. You're not just popping out and back in, you have to do improv. You're on stage and they have to see you for an extended period of time. These actors are recommended by other leaders from past years."
As with Nightmare's staff, Dunfield says that her crew is an all-comers, all-kinds lineup.
"It's crazy," she adds. "There are people that are younger; they want that first job. And some older people join, too, so it's not an all-young cast. I'm surprised at how many people are even retired, now getting to do whatever they want."
Among that diverse cast of actors, Dunfield said the connective tissue is a love of Halloween.
"One of our managers was a nuclear engineer and an at-home haunter," she said. "We placed an ad and he applied. [He] said, 'now I can come, have fun and spend someone else's money.'"