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78 Haunting Can Come With Hazards

Haunting can come with

hazards for haunted house

actors

WWMT TV

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WWMT) – Haunted
houses are often home to chainsaws, clowns and
creatures that go bump in the night, but it’s
customers that can be most frightening for the
workers behind the masks.
Whether it be a response to fear or
another influence, haunted house workers say
it’s not unheard of for customers to touch or
injure actors on the job.
Cortney Collia, an actress at Haunt Park
inside of the Kalamazoo Speedway, said it’s rare
get away,” she said. “Or to watch them shove she said. “We want people to be entertained, not
for customers to have a physical reaction to fear.
whoever they’re in a relationship with into so frightened that their body doesn't function.” []
More often, she said, people try to escape by
harm’s way so they can get out—it’s an
either running away or freezing up. She said in
interesting behavior to see in humans. But, it’s What Are Nightmares?
the instances where people do get violent, they
survival.”
don’t do so intentionally.
Jake Stommen, co-owner of the park,
“Some people will come in, and their Nightmares are vivid scary dreams. They tend to
said there’s also been situations where people
response will be to take out whatever has scared wake you up. They may often also stop you
expose themselves or talk inappropriately to
them,” she said. going back to sleep due to fear. Many children
workers.
Collia said she’s never been hit during have them, but they tend to stop between ages 9
“Some of the hazards that we have are
her nine years as an actress. Chelsea Stommen, to 11. If they keep going past this age and are not
primarily to guests that kind of forget, yes,
who also acts and whose brother and father own due to stress or trauma, then the person might
they're here to have fun and yes, we're here to
the park, had a similar story— until recently. keep having them for the rest of their life. These
entertain them, but this is also a job for our staff
After spending her whole life in the are known as idiopathic nightmares (start in
members,” he said.
haunted house business, Chelsea said she’d childhood and not from trauma). They can also
Jake said each year, both new and
never been hit until a few weeks ago. Chelsea start at any age after periods of stress, trauma,
returning staff members undergo a multi-day
plays an escaped prisoner in Haunt Park’s and the start of a mental or physical illness. A
training session. He said trainings include fire
Psycho Ward. While most actors are warned to child will often dream of frightening imaginary
safety, scare tactics and how to deal with
stay back from customers for safety reasons, creatures e.g. monsters or ghosts. An adult may
customers who are overly scared or
Chelsea said she takes the risk to perform close- dream images of events which either threatening
inappropriate.
up scares. or harmful in some way. These can be real or
“It’s worth it,” she said. “Scaring people imaginary. Nightmares with a link to trauma
“We start off by teaching our staff members how
is a thrill.” tend to have vivid images from the event e.g.
to interact with those individuals. [We teach
Chelsea said during one scare, a man assault, bushfire, accident, war etc. No matter
them to] completely back off, do not be
punched her in the gut out of instinct. She said what the cause, they tend to have the same
confrontational at all,” he said. “And then they
he immediately apologized. Being that he hadn’t effects:
immediately radio their team leads, our security
acted deliberately, she said she opted to stay in • Waking up suddenly due to the nightmare.
staff, and our security staff takes a look, sees
character and let him continue through the This often occurs about 90 minutes after going
what we need to do, and escorts them out if we
haunted house. to sleep. It can occur over and over for the rest
deem that appropriate.”
While Collia’s never been hit, she said of the night. The time between them is often
Collia said being an effective haunted
she has dealt with people who come into the around 90 minutes.
house actor takes more than just saying “boo.”
haunted house while under the influence of The training actors go through also teaches them • Rapid heart rate as well as fear. The person
drugs or alcohol. Collia’s position also requires may sweat.
how to perform different kinds of scares, the
her to be in charge of other actors’ safety, so • Seeing vivid images or scenes where
safest places to perform them, and how to keep
when someone needs to be escorted out, she said something bad was done to the person e.g.
groups moving through the attractions.
she’s sometimes the one to do it. humiliated, threatened or harmed.
“If someone's going to deck you, which
“We have had people come into the
is very rare that it happens, you're not going to
haunt that have been under the influence of Important Things to Know About
want to scare them directly from the front.”
things that appear that they're fine when they get
Jake said the park has trained medical Nightmares
here, but when they start getting fear-filled,
staff on site to help and customers or workers
whatever's in their system can start to cause who might get injured. He said most commonly, • Nightmares are most common in children.
harm,” she said.
injuries are a result of someone running into But adults can get them too.
Collia said the crew is always on the
another person in the darkness of the haunted • They can be set off by many things such as
lookout for customers who might be impaired,
house. stress,trauma or mental / physical illness.
watching for warning signs like stumbling,
With customers paying good money for • For some people there is no known cause.
yelling and becoming overly rowdy before
a good scare, Collia said its up to workers to be • You might think they are harmless. But they
entering the haunted houses.
aware of how patrons are reacting to the can happen so often that you don’t get enough
Collia admitted customers have run into
attractions. She said both customers and actors sleep at night.
her while trying to escape something else. She
know if a guest has their hands up, scaring them • There are ways to treat them (e.g. drugs), or
said the Haunt Park has a no touching and no is off-limits. you can learn how to control your dreams.
running rule to protect customers and staff, but
“We'll scare other people in their group, • If they are due to an event in your life, you
sometimes, people’s emotions get the better of
but we're not going to scare them, because can get counselling to deal with this.
them.
they've gotten to a point where we know if they
“It’s interesting to watch people shove
get any more, they're going to be in a bad place,” https://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/
their best friend into harm’s way so that they can