Haunt Scarer Tips?

[VFVSGirl16]

So, I'm working at a Haunt for one night only this Saturday, the 11th (If you wanna go to it, it's Dreadwood Haunted Forest in Hudson, Wisconsin!). I'm kind of nervous because I have no prior scaring experience, I'm just a huge Haunt fan. Any tips when it comes to scaring, what to wear, etc.? Thanks in advance!

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

Do you know where in your haunt your role is? That makes a big difference in what kind of character (and scare) you need to go for.

 

If you've got a speaking role (as opposed to a quick startle scare from a corner), use your costume and area to develop a character you can use to really freak people out. Don't worry too much if you can't think immediately of a good way to do this; you'll have plenty of time to experiment and come up with some good lines and techniques as you go through the night.

 

Other general tips:

•Depending on what kind of character you need to be, unnatural movements can accentuate the creepiness of your character. Try playing around with your body movements and you can come up with some very unnerving gaits. Note that such movements don't fit every kind of character, so you may want to be careful.

•Invading personal space is a decent way to get unnerving, but be sure not to stay in it for too long. Lingering too close can reveal some details that may detract from your scare (especially with props), not to mention some people have the nasty reflex of hitting when they get scared.

•Avoid saying "Get out". It's not only kind of cliche, but it comes off as unwelcoming (and not as immersive) to guests. Developing a strong character is a good way to avoid this; if you play your cards correctly, you can easily get people moving through your room in character if you really need them to.

[Jew]

Stretch and stay hydrated.

[screaminkid2005]

If you have another person in your room with you, develop a plan to have one person distract, while the other person comes up from behind and scares.

 

Focus on scaring one person in the group instead of the whole group. This way you have a greater chance of a more effective scare verses a minimal scare to the whole group. Try to work on reseting. Basically what it is is once you've pulled off your scareon one person, move to someone else in the group and only focus on them for that short period of time. Or if your haunt sends small groups, move back to your starting position.

 

Also, while getting in someones personal space is a very effective way to scare, follow what MayTheGForceBeWithYous tip about being award that some peoples natural reaction when being scared is to hit, slap, or punch. So just be careful. Also, if you see that someone is really scared, you can mess with them a little bit, but there comes a time where to them it's just not fun anymore and they might feel as they are becoming personally attacked. Just another thing to be careful of.

 

Hope you have fun working at your haunt! Let us know it goes!

[VFVSGirl16]

Hey everyone, I'll sum it up really quickly on how it went!

So it started off pretty slow for me and I wasn't finding a good technique, but I eventually found a great hiding spot and a great technique that REALLY worked for me. I ended up scaring SO many people, making grown men cry and pee themselves If you want to read all about it, here's a link to a detailed post about how it went: http://livelaughlovee13.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/dreadwood-haunted-forest/

It was so much fun though, I'm doing it again this weekend! Thanks in advance for checking out the blog post, and thank you to the people who replied with tips!