Spooky season is here! There’s a chill and a whiff of pumpkin spice in the air, but take a step toward the dark side and you’ll start to sniff out that most sacred of Halloween smells: the sweat-laced silicon donned for haunted houses and spooky experiences. If you’re aiming to scare up some work at one of these countless haunts around the world, you’ll want to be prepared for a unique (and uniquely exhausting) acting experience.
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A scare actor is a performer who dresses up in a frightening way, with the purpose of scaring guests at haunted attractions. Or as experienced scare actor Connor Terell simply puts it, they’re “the people that scare the guests.” These performers bring that special oomph to a haunted attraction, complementing the terrifying ambiance with characters that will live on in guests’ nightmares. They might be the ghosts and zombies inside of a haunted house, or they might creep around outside those horrid halls in dedicated scare zones.
Scare acting is a fun, seasonal gig that allows actors to brush up on their performance skills and ability to interact with audiences. The hours can be brutal and the work exhausting, but it can be a worthwhile survival job for aspiring actors.
An Actor’s Guide to Survival Jobs, Side Hustles + Side GigsAccording to ZipRecruiter, the average pay for an entry-level scare actor is about $11 per hour, with lows of approximately $7/hour and highs of around $15/hour, depending on region and haunt size. Larger attractions in bigger cities, like Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights and Knott’s Scary Farm pay a little bit more—between $15 and $20/hour according to Glassdoor estimates.
As these rates show, haunted house acting is held up by performers’ undying passion for the camp and craft of the Halloween season, rather than raking in the big bucks. But pay isn’t the only thing you’ll get out of this role. “As a scare actor, you have the opportunity to bring nightmares to life,” writes veteran scare actor Marie Cooper in a personal blog. “It’s a unique and exciting job that allows you to flex your acting muscles in a whole new way.”
While a lot of haunted house gigs might be looking for bodies more than genuine talent, there are still some steps you can take to ensure you land the frightening role of your dreadful dreams.
1. Build your skills.
Haunted house acting requires two major skills above all others: physicality and improvisation. Uncanny, unnatural body movements imbue characters and scenes with a special creep factor that’s sure to make guests’ skin crawl—think of Samara (Daveigh Chase) in “The Ring” (2002, dir. Gore Verbinski) or Longlegs (Nicolas Cage) in “Longlegs” (2024, dir. Osgood Perkins). Be sure to brush up on your improv skills to ensure you don’t break character and keep amping up the tension.
2. Network and find gigs.
Prospective haunters can network with their local creepy community online and at in-person events like Halloween and haunt conventions. Many local haunts advertise auditions on Facebook and Instagram, so be sure to keep an eye out for posts in your town. Of course, the best way to find jobs is using our comprehensive casting call database. Simply set up a search agent using the keywords “scare actor” and explore ghoulish gigs galore.
3. Nail the audition.
Once you’ve found haunts to audition for, it’s time to prepare for the big day. Unlike traditional theater roles where actors are cast for their ability to portray a specific character, haunt auditions are aimed at casting people with an equal amount of entertainment value and endurance. Many of these auditions involve gathering in a large gymnasium with several others, where wannabe scarers show off their ability to efficiently move through crowds, improvise with guests and fellow haunters, and, of course, be effectively frightening!
Whether you’re prepping for your first scare actor audition or you’ve already landed the gruesome gig of your nightmares, every performer should follow these tips to make every scream spooktacular.
- Develop a character. While a haunt might cast actors in specific roles, that doesn’t necessarily mean that those characters are fully fleshed out, if at all. It’s up to the scare actors to craft their own creepy characters, so going into auditions with one prepared means they’re more likely to land a role they can work with all season long. Imagine the types of roles that you can perform physically, using your body to make the character that much more frightening and exciting. Watch how the professionals perform these types of roles onscreen to start the process of building your own character.
- Strive for nuance. Being a good scare actor is so much more than jumping out from behind a corner and yelling “Boo!” In fact, many haunts explicitly tell their actors to avoid the overwrought exclamation altogether, lest they come across as cheesy or (even worse!) break the suspension of disbelief necessary for visitors to be scared.
- Get ready for spooky season. Like with any seasonal job, don’t expect to get your time-off requests accepted: Scare actors need to be in for the long haul, from training all the way to the final “trick or treat” on Halloween night. Once you’ve landed a role, it’s time to prepare yourself for a long (but rewarding!) couple of months. Practice your scare routines regularly, consult others for feedback, and collaborate with your cast mates to ensure everyone’s on the same page regarding characters and cues. Have some backup plans ready so that you can handle whatever antics each night’s guests might throw at you. As Cooper writes, “Visitors will often try to interact with you or throw you off your game, so you need to be able to improvise and keep the scares coming.”
- Stay hydrated. The most important rule for scare actors is perhaps the simplest: Drink water! October can still be quite warm in many areas, and even without that toasty weather, haunt acting can work up quite the sweat. The job is a test of endurance almost as much as it is one of acting prowess, and regular water breaks will help keep you in tip-top spine-chilling shape.
