With Halloween finally here, haunted houses might be the best way to enjoy the spooky holiday. Some students enjoy them so much that they have joined in on the thrilling atmosphere of scaring people.

“I’ve worked at Hanna Haunted Acres for two years now, and I have found it very fun and exciting. They pay very well, but the best part about it isn’t the money but the excitement and adrenaline you get to give people,” junior Aiden Towels said.

Though some people might think haunted houses are too scary to visit, others find them so exhilarating that they take scaring people as a job.

“The reason I started working at Hanna Haunted Acres is because I needed a job that wasn’t year-round and I knew how much I loved haunted houses, so I looked around and I was lucky enough to get a job at my favorite, most visited haunted house,” Towels said.

Sometimes even the scarers get scared.

“Being a scarer means stepping into a totally different vibe. Putting on the makeup and costume turns you into someone else completely. Sometimes out there in the dark, strange screams and footsteps that don’t belong to you can really sneak up on you,” he said.

Behind the scenes, things do not always go as planned. Equipment breaks, costumes tear, and fog machines fail. 

“One night, our main fog machine broke, and everyone was scrambling to keep the atmosphere going, so for that night, the butcher room wasn’t as scary or nerve-racking, but that just meant the other scarers had to step up and work even harder to give them just as good an experience,” Towels said.

With there being so many upsides to working at a haunted house, there are also some negatives.

“Though scaring people and getting them to scream is super fun, sometimes you’ll accidentally pick the wrong person in the group to go after. No one is supposed to touch the scarers, but sometimes there will be someone who pushes back without even realizing it. Another downside to working there is that the makeup isn’t exactly comfortable, and most of the time it will get itchy from sweating some of it off,” he said.

Even with all the creepy and sometimes stressful moments, the adrenaline and the uniqueness of the job make it all worth it.

“Every time you hear the last scream of the night, you get a sense of accomplishment knowing that you gave so many people great memories that will hopefully make them want to return,” Towels said.