True confessons of a haunted-house psychopath

It's not that easy to scare people.

Last year I worked for a haunted house in Tooele at Halloween. I had never known about all the hard work that goes into the fine art of scaring people. There is a whole team of people working behind the scenes with special effects, costumes, make-up, etc.

The haunted house I worked at was completely manned by volunteers. All of its proceeds went to the food bank and a local nursing home, so that gives some indication of how wonderfully dedicated these people were.

My role was as a raving lunatic, a barely restrained killer. My face was pale, my eyes were sullen and my hair was mussed. I spent many hours writhing, laughing maniacally, jumping out at people, screaming and being restrained.

It's not easy being a psychopath, but it is fun. It's enjoyable to be able to frighten people in an environment like that.

As the days went by, I gained a new respect for the science of frightening people. It's an exact recipe; you have to get it just right.

You can't be too invasive and you have to be patient, waiting for just the right moment to spring into action. You also have to quickly analyze your audience, thinking about the best way to scare them based on their age and how much they scream on the way into your area.

You use very different tactics to scare groups of children than you do to scare a group of teenagers. You use different tactics on teenagers than you do on senior citizens. Also, if you can hear them scream a lot on their way into your room, jumping out at them is a better tactic than just being creepy, which works more on those who aren't so open about voicing their fear.

So the next time you visit a haunted house, keep in mind the many talented people behind the scenes, and have sympathy for those who are trying to scare you. Don't poke the actors or make rude comments (as so many do).

Finally, don't be afraid to get scared.

Carter Thompson is a senior at Grantsville High School and a member of the Pulse team of teen writers.

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