# How to scare good with "actors"



## Verno77 (Apr 6, 2008)

Can you remember a haunted house with an actor that really scared you? Or do you do your own very success scaring at your own haunt using people. Simply put, do you just know a good way to scare people with actors? Any particular costumes they should wear or a prop they should use. We have a lot of volunteers, including me, at my local haunted house, but not that much money to spend, so I want to implement the actors as much as possible. We really scare the little kids, but I really want to be able to get some teenagers to jump. So, any ideas?


----------



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Have them think a little deeper than just jumping at people yelling "RRRRRRAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!" If they're a particular character, act the character. There's lots of really creepy behaviour people can do that is much scarier than the old jump out say boo thing.


----------



## grim reaper (Aug 18, 2005)

last year at the charity haunt i work at i was a grave digger and walking up behind a group of teens (especially girls) i had a shovel i would slam onto the concrete then drag it right behind them. Worked a treat


----------



## marcus132 (Oct 18, 2007)

For be the biggest scares always come from effective misdirection. If I'm expecting the scare to come from the cheesy looking doorway at the end of the corridor, and then a creature jumps in from an awesome hidden door in the opposite direction, I'll scream like a little girl every time.


----------



## naberhoodhaunts (Mar 29, 2008)

Last year we did a Jason room. Completely dark with about 10 glow in the dark Jason masks hanging on the walls at different heights, around your actors heights. Leave room in between for two actors. The actors should be in all black wearing Jason masks. Then wait for victims to enter the middle of the room. Then move in for the scare. Works every time. masks at wal-mart are about $3.00 each.


----------



## joker (Sep 25, 2007)

Our's was a bit cheesy last year, but we built a partially cardboard wall and hung 3 of those hologram morphings pictures on it. The middle one was cut to work like a drop window except it folded up. The actor behind the wall could watch guests come into the room and then she'd turn out the lights, lift the pic and then stick her face into the open frame, turn the lights back on and scream. Worked a lot better than expected.


----------



## ghostie (May 15, 2006)

Last year we got some good screams by just silently moving in with a group of kids. They got really freaked when they realized my husband was standing in their midst. He was dressed in a black ringwraith costume and he's over six ft. The black allowed him to sneak in easily. Later, he stood near our mailbox by the road so when people stopped to gawk, he'd move in. I LOVE getting folks who are too lame to get out of their car. Hearing the screams as they drove away was priceless. This silent approach might work if you have some more timid actors who are afraid to embrace a character.


----------



## Verno77 (Apr 6, 2008)

Wow, thanks a lot everyone. Keep them coming!


----------



## eanderso13 (Apr 10, 2008)

*Good fun!*

Good thread, here! I've always been a fan of the "is that fake? No, there's a person in there...wait, no...it's fake.... AAUAAAAUGH!!!"

My uncle performed this so well this past year in my haunt. Dressed in old nasty coveralls with a little extra padding inside to make him look stuffed, and then he'd sit in parts of the yard right by the walkway and pick his victims randomly. Sometimes all he had to do was turn his head. Sometimes he'd get up and follow someone, or just move to another location and people would see him and just freak out because they thought he was stuffed and was just in a different spot when they passed a second ago.


----------



## Uruk-Hai (Nov 4, 2006)

My brother did the same thing. He even had big garden gloves on to the wrong hands make his hands look more fake. He's stand still and as the kids approached they'd be trying to figure out if he was real or not. Once they had gone past up to the front door for the treats he'd change position. They would do a double-take, unsure if he had moved or not. Then he'd come after them dragging a shovel. As soon as the metal of the shovel hit the asphalt the loud scraping sound would send them screaming! Much more effective than me doing my shuffle & moan zombie routine on the lawn.

I've also seen it where the actor stands on a scrap of plywood on the driveway making it look even more like they are a dummy.


----------



## eanderso13 (Apr 10, 2008)

*Actors*

I love the gloves on the wrong hands idea!! And the plywood as well!

Last year at Great Lakes Frightfest in the haunted house there was someone who did a room that was full of dressed up dummies. Probably about 10 or so. All full-size, all masked and costumed. But among them were two actors posing as dummies. Being haunters, you can somtimes guess what's coming (have they found out what makes us think the way we do?), but it was still quite a good scare when the "dummy" you just passed taps you on the shoulder and you turn to find a rotting face staring at you!

I actually wanted to expand my haunt this year to include the driveway, garage and backyard, and I was going to do a similar "dummy gauntlet" in the backyard...but i had to move for a job.


----------



## RookieSpooker (Jul 23, 2007)

When you consider actor movement, look at movie like The Grudge and The Ring. The more "unnatural" and twisted the movements are, the creepier. These movements combined with silence-that's right, *silence*-of the actors, except for maybe a slight moan, would creep them out good.


----------



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

What RookieSpooker said.

I keep thinking of that scene in _*Silent Hill*_ with the nurses. If they would have all come on like animals or assassins, it wouldn't have been so creepy. But they had that semi-coordinated jerky, twitchy body movement -- and some would just sort of get stuck in mid movement and spaz or vibrate for a second before finishing the movement. And then they'd all stop at the same time. And there'd just be a few soft noises, almost sexual sort of moans, squeals, or gasps. It was just so totally wrong; no one and nothing moves like that, and there's no reason why anything would. That scene still gives me the willies.

And the infamous waking nightmare flashes in _*Jacob's Ladder*_ with the twitching/thrashing torsos. Yuck. So wrong.

So, I guess the benediction to them before the show could be: Be Thou Not Right. Yeah. I like that. I'll have to remember it.

Be Thou Not Right.


----------



## RookieSpooker (Jul 23, 2007)

Revenant, as soon as I clicked the post button, I thought SILENT HILL!!, I swear to God I did. I was thinking of when they encountered the "legs" creature in the street, but here is the nurse scene...That's what we're talkin' 'bout....It's all about movement.


----------



## Eric Striffler (May 6, 2006)

One of the creepiest costumes I've ever seen on an actor was literally all black clothes and pantyhose pulled down over his face like a robber.
Scary. As. Hell.


----------



## Verno77 (Apr 6, 2008)

These ideas all sound very good. I like the creepy movements and the dummy room, but every idea is very inspirational. Mah, ha, ha, ha!


----------

