- Dec 14, 2020
- 171
- 493
I'm not a scareactor, but I know a lot of current and former scareactors.Adding to this, speaking from at least 13 years of experience, every year there are new folks who discover in many ways the job of a Haunt Actor isn't easy. Sometimes it's due to a role and/or costume making it hard (e.g. Depth of Fear's Mouth-Brooders), other times it's due to unruly guests, the list goes on and on. And with the number of nights HHN runs, that is quite the gauntlet to undergo to the Nth degree, even for seasoned vets.
Yes, it can be a lot of fun, I wouldn't still be doing this if I didn't enjoy it. But there are folks who find out the hard way it's just not for them.
Every single one of them that returns does it out of sheer passion and love for the season, because it's not for the pay or benefits. Many of them have RSI (repetitive strain injuries) due to the physical nature of the job. The people who wield chainsaws have what's colloquially know as "saw claw," which is a condition where their hand is frozen into a trigger shape. Some people at Knott's who do sliding have no cartilage left in their knees. People have been kicked in the genitals, punched in the face, and in a severe case, scarred by an object thrown at them. And that's just the few people I know. It's why people don't last, or can't last. You're not Mickey giving hugs to kids; you're a physical prop/animatronic dealing with a lot of hostility, and in that sense, you're not even seen as human by too much of the general public. They all love it, but they've never once told me it was easy.
The vast majority of scareactors with any sort of physical role sacrifice their physical and mental wellbeing to entertain us and I will without hesitation buy dinner and a drink for any one that I meet.