Personal Distance:
This distance is between 4 feet and 18 inches away from the guests.
This is usually the zone most actors enter when attempting a startle
scare. It is close enough for you to be able to frighten the guests and
make them feel uncomfortable, as well as safe enough for you to avoid
most altercations, should a guest decided to have a physical reaction
after being scared.
Intimate Distance:
This space is 18 inches and closer. This space is used when trying to
make a guest feel extremely uncomfortable. Also considered the
"in-your-face" approach. While this is good, especially if you're
trying to psychologically scare the guests, it is also a danger zone
for the actor, as a guest could easily harm an actor for getting "too
close to them". Some, if not most people will not tolerate a stranger
to invade this space, especially a "monster" trying to scare them.
7. Vision:
Vision is a very important factor, in being able to effectively time
your scare, as well as keeping the guests and yourself safe. If you
can't clearly see the group, then it's probably best that you assume
the scare isn't safe and don't attempt it. I can't tell you how many
times I have been on the receiving end of, and have heard stories from
others on how a scare was misjudged because the actor couldn't see the
group clearly and ended up colliding with a guest. Safety should be
your prime concern. Not just the safety of the guests, but yours as
well.
8. Confidence:
No matter what anybody says, you cannot scare every single guest that
comes through. It's a proven fact. If you're good enough, you can scare
maybe 80-85% of guests, but never all of them. You'll always have some
smart-ass guests who come through acting all tough or making some
stupid, rude or snide remark when you try to scare them. It doesn't
matter if they're sober or intoxicated. These remarks can be a real
confidence killer for actors. You can be having a great night and then
you get one of these guests and they really bring you down. The best
way to handle these remarks is to ignore them as best you can, regain
your composure and get ready for the next group. While you may not have
scared these guests, chances are, you'll have the next group screaming
their heads off.
9. Growls, Yells and Screams:
If you ask Leonard Pickel, what you say isn't as important as the way
that you deliver it, which is true for the most part, but dialogue can
play a large role in whether you get laughs after the screams or if the
guests continue screaming as they run into the next room. The most
common stereotype is that haunt actors just hide in a corner then pop
out and say "Boo!", which couldn't be further from the truth. The word
"Boo!" should be avoided at all costs. It just gets laughed at and
contributes to the false stereotype. When you come out, should you
decide to use some sort of dialogue, think about what your character
would do. Would a zombie say "HEY!" and then giggle maniacally?
Probably not, so choose what you say wisely. Growls and screams are
always generic forms that don't usually get laughed at, but sometimes,
you can easily strain your throat by doing so. Graphic dialogue should
also be avoided, unless absolutely called for by a scene. I have heard
many customers complaining because an actor told their 8 year old that
he was going to "pluck their eyeballs out and rip their head from their
spine" or something to that effect. If you wish to save your voice, you
can always resort back to the noise factor. Slamming a door or banging
a wall can get as much of a startle as a loud menacing growl.
10. Enthusiasm:
Enthusiasm is what seperates the true actors from those who are just
there to get paid or meet the opposite sex. if you give it your all and
have enthusiasm, it will show in your scares. You'll find that scaring
guests becomes more fun and easier along the way. It's the only way to
stay positive while acting. In addition, the more you put into a scare,
the more you'll get out of it.
11. S.C.A.A.R.E.
SCAARE is an acronym given to me by
Allen Hopps, general manager of Terrain of Terror and a former actor of
such events as Terror on Church Street, Skull Kingdom and Spookyworld,
to name a few. SCAARE stands for:
Survey group/ select target
Catagorize guest type
Awareness
Action
Reaction
Escape
Thats the acronym for a decent way of thinking about impacts in a
haunted house. Let's break it down and go into a bit of detail about
each step.
Survey group / select target:
Always have a way to view the group before you make your scare, it can
be through a peephole, sneaking a peek at the group in the set before
yours, or a pre-room scare in a stretch of hallway before your set,
always survey the group. This is for two reasons.
1. saftey- look for guests who have their fists clenched and are ready
to swing, plan your scare either behind them or out of their reach,
look for small children who you may accidentally run over to scare
someone because they are out of your masks' normal vision range
2. To plan your action, we all know that different kinds of people are
scared of different things, so now is the time to check out your guests
body language and plan your scare when the time comes.
Categorize guest type:
Who are you hitting in the
group, always pick a target have a specific victim in mind when you
attack. Body language is the key to this the guests body language will
tell you every thing you need to know. Look for those who are really
looking around for something to jump out, they scare easily, look for
those who are only looking straight ahead at where they are going, they
want to get out as son as possible and don't want to draw attention to
themselves, look for guys who have their shoulders hiked up around
their neck (that's a prey response when frightened to protect their
throats), look for someone with their head turned the other direction
for a split second, that gives you a chance to appear out of nowhere,
there are a million things that body language will tell you its just a
matter of recognizing the signs and using them to your advantage.
Awareness:
this is the most important part of this, be as aware as possible of the
group in front of you, of the set they are walking through and of
yourself. awareness on your part will keep everyone safe and having a
good time. Here are some examples of what I mean, Be aware of the small
children that i mentioned earlier, that the group before may have wet
themselves and now the floor is slick, that the third guy in the group
has a pen in his hand he plans to use as a weapon when you get close,
that there is a nail popping out of the wall behind the group and you
could scare them into it, that the hallway they run into after your
scare is very dark and they may hurt themselves running into it, there
are a million things that could go wrong or have a potential to go
wrong for every group, you the performer are the best defense against
all these things as no one knows this area of the haunt better than you
do (or should).
Action:
After you have surveyed the group and selected a target, after you have
categorized the guest type and become aware of all possible things,
then you take your action. Your action may be lunging wildly at them,
or leaning forward to whisper unsweet nothings in their ear. It should
be well time and a sufficient distraction should precede it so the
target doesn't expect it. There are two main kinds of startle scares,
the appearing act, and the blizzard are my names for them, yes there
are more kinds of scares, but every kind of startle is one of these
two. The appearing act is when an actor appears out of thin air and his
sudden appearance startles the group.
An actor hiding under a strobe light does an appearing act as he steps
froward out of darkness, if he leans in close in the pitch dark and
whispers something, then his voice appeared where once their was
nothing, an actor hiding behind a door who suddenly swings it inward
and scares the group is the same thing, appearing acts work really well
and require little effort from the performer, they are easy to sustain
and it really helps to have a set built for this scare, you can do an
appearing act in the open but it requires good timing, an actor is in
an established position from a victim (established by the victim seeing
the actor there) when the victim turns their head enough for the actor
to be out of their vision, the actor makes a dash towards the victim,
their head moves back into position to locate the performer and bam! he
has magically appeared right in from of them. This works best when the
performer sees the victim locate him, and thinks the performer hasn't
seen the victim, also a range of at least 10 feet away or more makes
this much more effective.
The blizzard impact is just as it sounds, the actors comes at the group
with all the fury of an angry blizzard, arms clawing or waving, head
whipping around (looks best with long hair) and pure violence and
energy come with them. It is best for the group to see the actor a full
second before he attacks, the actor should focus and send an energy of
hate at the guests as he approaches (sounds kooky but trust me it
helps), the blizzard impact should make every person in the group move
backward two or three steps. the blizzard takes alot of energy and
takes a toll on the performer, he is the one who will twist his ankle,
and or blow out his voice before the night is through. Its interesting
to note that "statue" scares can work as both the appearing act or as a
blizzard scare for different people in the group, as the actor stands
motionless for a length of time some of the group will write him off as
a mannequin, to them he does an appearing act because an actor just
showed up where a mannequin used to be, to the ones in the group who
knew he was real and was waiting for him to move, he did a blizzard
impact because it was his flurry of motion and the anticipation of him
moving that scared them. The two kinds of impacts can be combined but I
will go over that in the next section.
Reaction:
Reaction during the scare is huge, as well as reading it properly by
the actor. What you are doing during this stage is reacting to the
guests reaction of your first impact. Look for someone who you werent
targeting who completely lost their composure when you came at them,
get a second impact on that person, look for someone who may have
fallen and hurt themselves when you scared them, make sure not to scare
anyone else on top of them if they are genuinely hurt. As far as doing
both kinds of scares on a group, lets say you did and appearing act on
the middle of the group, in your perifial vision you see the man in the
back of the group flinch, thats his reaction, so now follow up with a
blizzard attack aimed in his general direction. The impacts will blend
together seamlessly and neither will seem out of character for any
monster. Do not take more than four seconds with a group, the action
should take two seconds, judging the reaction should take .25 or .5
seconds, use the rest to do your reaction impact, you may do more than
one reaction impact, by lunging or reaching for different members of
the group, but each seperate impact gets less effective. Remember that
startle impacts are like earthquakes, if you are prepared for them and
know they are coming then they are no big deal, its because they are
unpredictable that they are a problem. and each tremor after the quake
is less strong (partly because they already got the big one and are
expecting the tremors). If your impact lasts more than four seconds
then you will see the group start to compose themselves, they will no
longer be afraid of you (If you were a real threat then they would be
dead by now right?) they will look at you, they will slowly realize
that there are six of them and only one of you, they will look at you
and think to themselves "he is kinda short to be Michael Myers isn't
he?" they will realize that the person in front of them is only 5'8"
tall and is holding a rubber knife, so the jist of it is that more than
four seconds is very bad for the scares and bad for your ego as a
performer.
Escape:
Escape is the second most important aspect of SCAARE. Escape is what
keeps you from getting hurt, and keeps the guests scared of you. Back
to the four second rule for a second , It takes a human brain about
three seconds to recognize a threat and form an action and then execute
an attack, only preconceived hits will get you (which you should look
for in the awareness stage) if you aren't out there to long. Escape is
vital, it is important to have a place to go, hopefully it is through a
door, around a corner, through a curtain, or even just back into
darkness where they can no longer see you. It is better for every guest
to say "what the hell was that and where did it come from and go to?"
than to have them say "he was 5'9" tall and he was wearing white
sneakers and had on a mask that was white with clown makeup on it....."
you get the idea, the less they see, the better. Unless you have
mastered the art of tap dance and feel like giving a little show after
the scare, then get out of dodge and hide. The best part of escape is
that is lets you do it all again, just give the group enough time to
regain their composure and get on their way and then nail someone else
from a new angle.
While there's certainly many different ways to scare guests and
different actors use different methods, there's no "one" right way to
scare people, but as you can see, being able to know your victims,
correctly time the scare and tailor it to each individual group will
greatly increase your abilities to scare and help you grow better as an
actor.
