Your character is core to your position as a haunter. After you’ve been hired on and the introductions have been made you’ll find out what room you’ll be working and you’re character. There are two main types of characters for you to play, scripted or improv.
Scripted characters are easy if you have prior acting experience. The haunt should provide your with most of all the components for your costume and what lines or actions your can take with customers. There sometimes is a little wiggle room for improv, but that depends on the haunt. Scripted characters can be easier to learn how to play, but the trade off is there’s less creative freedom for the haunter.
Improv is where it gets fun. This is where I have my own personal experience in haunting. You get to build your own costume and craft your own lines. The haunt might have some costume components already for you, but you may have to buy your own. Management might also want to approve your costume before opening night to make sure it fits with the haunt.
To start, it’s best if you know what room you’re working and build your character around that. If for example, you got assigned to a hospital room, it would make more sense to play a mad doctor rather than a swamp creature. Make sure the costume you build fits the room and it can add to the visual immersion of the haunt.
If you’re going the buy route, start with what your have at home. Do you have a prior costume from Halloween your could wear? Or perhaps some old worn out clothes. Costumes can run from a couple bucks to thousands of dollars. It all depends on how in depth you want to go. For your first haunt you’ll probably want to go in the cheaper side and make sure you enjoy doing this first before investing more money into it if you want to continue haunting. Your local thrift store is also a good option to find components for your costume. You may be surprised at what you find. Don’t be afraid to go to a local or seasonal Halloween store to buy a costume. It’s perfectly fine in the haunt community to use a premade generic costume. Don’t feel guilty if your creative juices aren’t flowing. I’ve used premade costumes before and I got great scares out of them. If you really want to go high end, there are specialty costume shops online (and sometimes brick and mortar) that make really fantastic pieces. For example there are masks that mold to your face and move with your mouth, and they can run a few hundred dollars easy.
If you’re thinking of having makeup part of your costume, most haunts will have makeup artists available. Talk with your artists about what you want done before the first night of the season to game plan your makeup. If you want your should be able to do your own as well, just make sure to clear it with management first.
Once you have your room and costume, now it’s time to start thinking of lines for your charcter. It’s ok if not all of them stick. Not all of them will, but don’t be affraid to try something new. It’s best to avoid cliche lines like “boo” and “get out” as these are way overdone. Sometimes simple is best. You don’t have to go into a long speech. Three or four short lines is best. Only throw one or two of them out at a time. You’ll get bored if you only use one line the whole night every night. It’s good to have a few in your back pocket ready to go. Different people will have different reactions, so be prepared to think on your feet. Unless its an emergency, always stay in character. Some people will try to get you to break character, when this happens, what would your character say? How would they respond? Think about these things, and if you’re having trouble coming up with a go to response, talk with more seasoned haunters and ask what they do or whats more common at your haunt.
Lines should fit the overall theme of your room and character. Lets take the example of the mad doctor in a hospital room. What lines would work best for this character? Would a line like, “Its time for dinner and you’re on the menu!” be appropriate for the room and character? No. You’re not in a kitchen or similar setting, so it wouldn’t make sense to use that line. Would a line like, “We’re ready to put you under for the opperation. Get on the table!” work better? Yes! Becasue it works for the theme of the character and room. This is how to build immersion into your space. Think along these lines when scaring and you’ll be golden.
The next post in this series will be about self care and building self care kits. If this is your first time haunting, it might not be something you think about right away, but it is highly important to bring certain items with.
Scare Acting 101: Part 2 Character is marked with CC0 1.0
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