Halloween season is a great opportunity to try out some spooky activities like a haunted hay ride or a haunted house. And Americans really love to get scared. According to the trade association America Haunts, there are about 1.2k paid haunted attractions in the U.S., and another 3k charity ones.

We as customers often don’t see into the nitty-gritty of what the actors of haunted attractions go to. So, to let us see things from their perspective, one person online asked: “Haunted house workers, what is something that a guest did had said or done that made you break character?” Turns out even the toughest and scariest characters can break and bust out a laugh at a customer’s shenanigans.

#1

I (M) was playing a grim reaper statue that comes to life and lowers my (fake) scythe blade in front of guests from behind. This college age girl walks up to me and, convinced I was just a statue or a prop, grabs my *parts* to prove to her friends it was safe. I looked at her slowly and asked "So do you take me to dinner now or…" that was the best scream we got all night.

Image credits: KamuiBatosai

#2

I was an actor at a haunted house years ago. We had separate rooms connected by hallways for guests to walk through (like, there was a haunted house room, a circus themed room, and a zombie room). I worked in the zombie room, and played a zombie.

The room was made up to look like a living room of a house that had been broken into by zombies– furniture toppled over, lamps laying on the floor, the door hanging off the hinges, a broken window, blood everywhere, and a half-eaten body lying on the floor. I was to be hunched over the dead body, pretending to munch on it when the guests walked in. And I'll say, our make-up crew was skilled. I looked like something from The Walking Dead.

Well, this dude walks into my zombie room, he sees me hunched over the dead body, and I did this creepy thing where I slowly look up at him and stare with my mouth hanging open. He goes "Oh, HELL no!" and stumbled backwards onto the couch, tried to scramble off the couch, only to trip over the lamp that was on the floor, and wound up falling facedown on the floor.

I have to admit, I broke character and laughed. I couldn't help it.

Image credits: anon

#3

A friend of mine caused a lady to break character. Near the end of a local haunted mill a woman in demonic type makeup jumps out of a pentagram/summoning circle thing. Shrieks “I will teach the meaning of true pain!” and my buddy just goes “Lady, I’ve been married for 20 years, you ain’t got s**t”.

She burst out laughing, gave him a hug and told him to get the f**k out.

Image credits: eccehobo1

#4

I worked in haunted house for many years. Lot’s of examples when someone made me and other actors break character. Some were people’s ridiculous reactions, like giant guys crying to people pushing their children down to run away, or because of their behavior like people trying to hit us or having medical issues like people throwing up, or because of trashy parents bringing toddlers inside (please don’t do that!). However, the one the sticks out the most is when a woman came through alone, walking really slowly with her down while dragging her nails really hard along the walls. And I mean HARD. I could her scraping before I saw her. I should mention, these walls were made from cheap particle board full of splinters and decorations. The weird thing is that as she approached, I realized I didn’t hear any of the actors before me, which were my que to get ready. Just creepy music and nails on the ragged walls. When she finally got to my scene, as I was about to do my jump scare she came straight to me and touched my costume and mumble something. Her eyes were glazed over and she was just not there. She just turned and started scraping the walls again on the way out. I didn’t even get a chance to perform. I just stood there utterly speechless. Since I was the last actor in the haunt, as soon as she left, a bunch of the actors ran to me and said the same thing: WTF was that?!?! Somehow, she managed to scare/creep out over a dozen veteran haunted house actors. Looking back, I am pretty sure she was on d***s, but I can’t help to think that she must have absolutely destroyed her fingers, gotten a bunch of splinters or even ripped her nails off.

TL;DR: Woman legitimately freaked out a whole cast of seasoned haunted house actors.

Image credits: goobermuslim

#5

Used to work in one years ago. I worked the crowd – but mainly by standing at the entrance in a coffin that was fitted with an undertaker. I walked in the undertaker’s feet but my upper half was in the coffin. One night I was standing there. Bone still. I did my own makeup and frankly it was good. Made me look “fake”.

I’m standing there completely silent and still. Some German woman; drunk (because you can smell the beer on her) goes “is he real?” Cue me to kick the back of the coffin as a jump scare. She then proceeds to back hand me across the face.

She did not get to go through the haunted house and was not refunded her money.

Image credits: sdemat

#6

As a haunted house customer…

I walked into a room full of female performers dressed as asylum inmates, with crazy hair and tattered straightjackets and everything, all muttering "They're here, they're coming," stuff like that. One got right up and glared at me and for some reason my brain said "So… what time do you get off?" I definitely saw a little crack-up.

I thought I had a pretty good shot at it until the guy with the chainsaw got her.

Image credits: Poorly-Drawn-Beagle

#7

As a haunted house customer…

My Type 1 diabetic girlfriend and I were waiting to enter and begin the actual house. This was after the line to get in and the holding area for parties to be able to go together. There was this big demon tree thing that had an actor actually talking to us.

“Tell me, mortals. What do you think your souls taste like?”

I looked to my girlfriend. Just a sheepish grin and a shrug. Then I chime in and respond

“Well, I don’t know about me, but her soul would be pretty sweet because she has diabetes.”

“…. That’s…..awful.”

Still one of our favorite memories but that whole evening was just lovely and pleasant.

Image credits: hanslobro

#8

Not a worker, but as a customer, my sister and I once took a wrong turn in the haunted house. We were cornered by a dude in a hockey mask who was revving his chainsaw as he approached and we were screaming in terror…

Then he took his mask off and said in exasperation, “guys you’re not supposed to be back here.” Then he shooed us back into the main hallway. Lol.

Image credits: Hooch_Pandersnatch

#9

So I was stationed in a small room just off to the side of a long hallway with a strobe light at the end. It made it hard for guests to see down towards me, but very easy for me to see them. So one evening a group of a five teens come through; four girls with one guy leading them. Just as they enter the hall, the guy turns around to talk with them. Having just been handed a golden ticket here, I sneak up right behind this guy. The girls all go stone silent and when the dude realizes they’re looking at something beyond him, he turns around and finds me standing within inches of his face. I give out the most guttural scream I can, and in response, the guy LEAPS backwards and knocks down all four girls behind him like they were bowling pins, leaving them all a tangled pile on the floor.

I literally could not hold it together. I had to run off into a staff only area because I was laughing so hard and could not stop. Easily one of my favorite memories from that place.

Image credits: cannedcream

#10

I was in very well one of the best spots in the house. We call this one “mineshaft,” where the only light comes from the night sky or sparks, other effects we have in the house, and it is themed around a (you guessed it) mineshaft.

Well, in this particular instance I was the first scare as the people came through. I enjoyed the spot where I was because it was pretty much pitch black, and having dark clothes on I blended right in. There is this long corridor that at my end, where the light is completely pitch black, they turned to another section in the house, and at the other end is this corridor that makes up the entrance, so I can see the light and the people coming but they couldn’t see me. It was such a great spot because I would be right in front of them as well, and because of this I was able to scare them head on. Some people jumped back, some people almost tripped and fell, groups of girls screamed, people laughed hysterically because they were so high, and other people just stared.

What made me break character was this boyfriend and girlfriend, looked to be in high school, and I saw that the girlfriend was grabbing her boyfriend very closely and looked to be unnerved by the whole house. Boyfriend kept telling her that it was alright and reassuring her. By this time they were walking down this corridor that I’m facing down, and comes my turn to scare. I can make a really good sort of “zombie screech” and it’s exactly what I did. To my surprise the boyfriend jumped back but the girlfriend just stood still for about 5 seconds. She then slowly started walking back and collapsed to the floor, sobbing hysterically and wouldn’t move. The boyfriend went up to her and tried to reassure her but she kept crying.

At this point I broke character and asked if she was okay and if I could help. It took about two minutes of reassurance before we both helped her out of the house, still sobbing. It definitely looked to be a panic attack and I was glad I was able to help, but also a bit bummed about ruining their night and causing that distress to the girl. It all comes with the territory for sure though.

Image credits: iGamerAlex

#11

Not a worker, but I got to witness it. The worker was dressed as a crazy doctor. We enter the room, and the worker says “Are you ready for you autopsy?” in a really creepy voice. My friend responds “…Yes?” The worker’s face just changed from menacing to complete confusion, then she dropped the act and asked “Do you know what an autopsy is?” My friend did not know, so we had to explain it to her.

Image credits: beltedkingfisherhair

#12

One night this couple comes in with a 3-4 year old girl. She is throwing a huge fit, kicking, screaming, crying, the whole 9 yards, she doesnt wanna go in.

Now, a logical human being would see this and say, "well I guess we dont go" but not these two f**kos. They keep trying to force little girl to go through the house, but she wont budge. This is causing a bit of a scene as well as backing up the line. Myself and one or two other monsters tell them "look, you gotta either get her to go in, or you gotta leave, you're holding up the line" but they are adamant that she has to go through and she is not having it. Now were pissed off because, why the f**k are you trying to make this small child go through when she is obviously terrified and scared out of her f*****g mind? We realize something has to happen, so we seek out one of the girls from further down the house who was a witch we called Baba Yaga since she was the most human looking of us. We told her the situation and asked if shed help walk the girl through the house, and she agreed.

So we bring Baba to the little girl, and she goes into this cartoonish russian accent "HellO leetle gorrl, I am Baba Yaga the gOod weetch! I am going to heyalp you scare all the mon-stors awaY!" She takes the little girls hand and off they go. We run off through the house spreading the word, "If you see Baba with a little girl, let the little girl scare you". Sure enough, whenever they got to where one of the monsters was hiding, the little girl would yell "BOO!" and whoever was there would lose their marbles. Screaming, running around in circles, falling all over the place. Sometimes there be more than one monster and they'd run into each other like the Three Stooges, all to the delight of the little girl, who was now giggling and jumping up and down, clapping her little hands, it was adorable. The adults that were with her look annoyed, but f**k them, the rest of the group that got lumped in with them were having a great time as well watching this tiny child scare the mean ugly monsters away.

I've never seen an entire house break character like that, but it was fun to be a part of.

Image credits: Klown1327

#13

I said “I’m gonna skin you b***h!”

–

She replied, “no you’re the skinny b***h!”

–

I broke character and told her what I really said.

–

Maaan, I was there to scare not bodyshame.

-.

Image credits: O5CR

#14

Not me, but my friends and I were walking through and there was this girl with make up to look like she had a slit throat and just sat there and said “do you wanna play” and he responded with “nah I‘m not ticklish“ she said it again and he said with quite a bit of force and said “Look woman… I AM NOT IN THE MOOD FOR KICKBALL!” and she broke out laughing.

Image credits: Trust_me_Im_stupid

#15

Not an employee, but the source of a broken character.

I was going through one of the Halloween haunted houses at Busch Gardens with my girlfriend, and the girl being devoured by the vampire near the end was an old friend from high school.

Me: Hey Kate, how have you been?

Her being devoured by vampire: Oh, hi Mike. I’ve been better.

Me: Well, good luck with that.

Her: OK, bye.

Image credits: Mikey6304

#16

Not a worker but…

I was at a haunted house with a few friends one of their names was Christian. Well Christian was messing with a girl in our group who was really scared, and he pushed her to the front of the group just as one of the workers jumped out. she screamed and a yelled “f**k you Christian!” The worker stopped and said in an confused/offended voice “did you just call me a f*****g Christian?” It was pretty funny.

Image credits: zenthor101

#17

I didn’t work at a haunted house, but I was the one that made a guy break character.

We were at this amusement park sponsored haunted house. At the very end, a guy dressed as Leatherface was running around getting in peoples’ faces and scaring them with what was supposed to be a chainsaw. Except it wasn’t. He came up to me and I told him, “Sorry, I’m not scared of your leaf blower.” He just stopped in his tracks. I don’t think he had expected anything like that.

Image credits: JaiRenae

#18

Not a worker, but I ask the workers for high fives and sometimes they break character to do it. I also asked one how a sparking rod works and they showed me.

Image credits: TheEvilGoats

#19

I worked at Field of Screams (in hindsight, a terrible place to work, we were unpaid volunteers and treated worse than that).

ANYWAY, I worked at the very first section of the Nocturnal Wasteland (an outdoor haunted trail). And I was one of the first scares. It was great. Nobody expects to be jumpscared that early, so my scares were 90% successful.
So I have two stories:

1. A girl and her parents wanted to find the exit as soon as they stepped past the entrance. Like the girl was coming out of the entrance screaming in fear. I guess the entrance triggered a panic attack. I didn’t know what to do. I tried my best to not break character, so I just used hand signals (I had a mask on and it was too loud to talk anyway). I held my hand up to stop the rest of the group and motioned for the terrified family to break away, then motioned for the group to continue. I led the family to the “exit” which was a narrow walkway the VIP members use to skip to the front of the line. It was the only exit that was this close to the entrance that would cause the least trouble, as the regular line was full. The parents thanked me and I nodded and went back to scaring. Nobody trained us for those situations.

2. One of the scares I did was crawling on the floor and grabbing at the victims feet (without touching them). It was outside after dark and very low lit, so I was always a surprise to everyone. One time, after scaring the crowd, I was clawing at the ground and howling and whatnot to keep them uncomfortable. This lady, completely straight faced and unphased, just full on stomps on my hand. I was dumbfounded. What made her think that that was okay? I wasn’t touching anyone. She wasn’t afraid or acting out of fear, she just straight up smashed my hand and kept walking like she was tough shet. I was a frail timid 13 year old little girl. I couldn’t do anything but shrink away and scamper back to my hiding place/break station to collect myself.

Image credits: _lady_spooky_

#20

Used to work at a haunted house that ran as a charity where I would hang on some rafters and swing around at people. Every now and then I would grab somebody’s hat and throw it into the next room where the next guy could give it back to them. One big guy got pissed and grabbed me and dragged from the ceiling and threw me up against a wall. I shouted to the guy in the next room who was a cop who came in and dragged the guy out of the house.

Image credits: jivanicus

#21

When I was younger I went to one, and about halfway though we got to this section where the scare actor flubbed his lines hard.

I looked to a friend and said “I think he forgot his lines”

The scare actor looked right at me and snarled “you try doing this 100 times a night!”.

Image credits: Wolfsleeper

#22

Probably the time a guy came in drunk as f**k and kissed me on the lips did I mention I am a guy I said if you want to go any further you’re going to have to take me out to dinner and that made his group laugh so hard they nearly pissed themselves and no I am not gay.

Image credits: rhog

#23

TL;DR – When our group of 4 in the final room scared a guy so bad he ran straight into a cement wall. Busted up his head something fierce. I definitely broke character to take him out of the “haunted house” and get him some medical treatment.

This was Highschool and a haunted house opening up was trying to get workers. They asked our theatre troop to work, so of course I said yes. The “haunted house” was 4 separate buildings with courtyards connecting each one. The buildings were actually Japanese internment camps/jails used during World War 2. Myself and three others took up residence in the final building. Our setup was awesome and got voted the best part of the whole experience.

1) Disorientation – removed all light sources to make our area as dark as possible. Set up multiple strobe lights some were motion activated (these were put inside the jail cells, so when you step in you get blasted by bright light flashing in your face) some ran constant (these were placed at the end of the hall towards the exit. Moving towards a strobe light is rough. So most people would enter and turn away from it to walk the opposite direction. Leading them to a dead end. Also loud constant noises. Once the entire group of “visitors” were trapped inside, the four of us would make loud obnoxious noises (think sirens not ghost sounds; intermingled with laughter and barking) to add to the disorientation.

2) Jump scares – to raise the heart rate, get those fear juices flowing and make them more susceptible to future scares. I stood behind the main entrance door and would pop out spouting some old world prayers “now I lay me down to sleep…”. One of our members hid on the roof and once all visitors had entered the building she’d jump down and block the doorway. Another member was in the last cell with stage pyrotechnics (fireballs that shoot from your hand and creating trails of fire on the cement walls)…it also helped she was an opera singer and could shriek like a true Siren. The final member was a wild beast that charged groups on all fours and “threw big bones in their general direction”.

3) Abandonment Fear – we couldn’t do this with everyone, but if one or two people came in, got disoriented and found themselves in one of the last jail cells (no strobe light, just darkness) we’d shut them in and lock it. As soon as this happens we go quiet and slink off back to our starting positions to get ready for the next group of visitors. We’d leave these people locked in the cell for usually one or two groups and then release them. But only when the current group was disoriented and trapped at the dead end…creeeeeaaaak CLANG! The jail door opens and these people come running out, terror ensues from both parties, running scrambling and tripping over each other, while the four of us sit back and enjoy the show!

Building details…it was basically a big U shaped building and you entered about half way up on one side (so when you enter you can go left or right). Curve in the U led towards the exit but was also where the strobe lights were setup. There were maybe 10 or 12 jail cells on each side, sooo the building was about 100m in length?

So this is how things would typically go…
A group of visitors tentatively come in the door. Down the hall to their right is a bright strobe light flashing and out pops me giving my creepy final prayers to these unfortunate souls. At the same time, down drops girl 1 from the roof, Thud! She blocks the entrance with her machete. The visitors turn and run away from the light and towards the dead end. Realizing they are trapped they turn around to see the shadows of myself and girl 1 walking towards them. Queue loud disorienting noises and beast guy. From behind us feral beast man rushes past us straight for the visitors. Clack! A bone bounces off the wall next to these people who in their terror move into one of the jail cells. Whoosh!!!! Fireballs are launched and the wall is ignited to create burning scratch marks on the walls and girl 2 shrieks adding to the existing din. In runs beast guy causing the visitors to rush out of the cell and back into the hallway where they end up running towards the strobe light and around the corner. Girl 1 is already getting back on the roof and I have climbed into the ceiling so when these people come running around the corner, and see the gift shop noting the end of the haunted house, I can drop down in front of them for one last scare. Reset and repeat.

In the case of the guy who smashed his head….he was locked up in the cell for a couple turns. People thought he was part of the act or didn’t believe him when he said he was trapped. When we finally let him out he flipping booked it. Unfortunately, he went the wrong way (away from strobe instead of into it) and face planted into the wall. I can still hear the smacking sound of him hitting it. He was pretty bloody. Got him out safely and to a medical professional. The “owner” of the haunted house was so worried about a lawsuit, but the guy kept saying it was the most fun he’d had in years. He came back three more days and brought his family, friends and coworkers to experience it. It was great to see him each time. On the return trips he’d write a note and put it and $40 in an envelope and ask someone to take it to the last group (us). He’d tell us who he had in his party, who to single out and what the group in front of him looked like so we knew when he was going to come through.

Honestly, working that Haunted House is still in my top 10 for life experiences. So much fun and so many good memories.

Image credits: lostBluBird

#24

I have had many strange encounters with people. I could write a book about them. One time a guest jumped in front of me and said, ‘Boo!’ as if she was playing a game of tag or hide-and-seek. Another time one person touched my shoulder to get my attention but then ran away before I could turn around to see who it was because s/he didn’t want me to break character by facing him/her (which would ruin the effect). A third example is when someone asked for directions through the house from behind, talking into their cell phone without realizing that they were saying all of this out loud so there was no reason why I couldn’t answer back out loud too even though we were both pretending not to hear each other’s voices.

I had one other experience where a guest walked up to me and said, ‘You’re the only person in this whole house that I can talk to. You seem nice.’ After I thanked her she asked if I would mind walking with her through the rest of the house so she wouldn’t feel scared anymore. Of course I was happy to.

There is one more thing I will mention which has happened to me. It’s not exactly a guest who breaks my character but an audience member. Some time ago, when in the middle of performing with other actors for two hundred people at an event, someone stood up and shouted ‘Boo!’ or something similar to that effect. The whole audience started laughing and we were all caught off guard by it.

I am almost finished. I just wanted to say that I feel the most frightening thing is when we are walking around in a dark room and then someone jumps out at us, perhaps even from behind a closed door, because it’s so unexpected.

Image credits: thegentlemetre

#25

I was only about 17 and took a job at a hauted house. I would travel the waiting line and try to creep people out. Long black robe, great ghoulish makeup. A little girl got VERY upset with me and began crying miserably and her parents tried to calm her. I dropped to my knees and took my hood down and showed her that it was just makeup by removing some with my fingers, speaking calmly the whole time (“It’s okay, it’s just me playing, I’m sorry I scared you, etc”). She was fine after a minute or so, but that was the last time I did that bit. I remember how the movie IT got to me so hell no. I still wonder about her every Halloween lol.

Image credits: Sauerteig

#26

Mine from a previous post;.

In my high school haunting years there was a fairgrounds haunt with three separate attractions/houses, mine being a called The Mineshaft I do believe. I was positioned at the end of a hallway, proceeding a maze, with a 180 degree corner/turn the patrons had to make to continue thru the haunt. A light above, in the corner, gave me a great hiding place. Pair this with some black clothes, black trench coat (cause I was an edgy teen), a black leather mask and now I’m a cross between Bane & the gimp (a la Pulp Fiction).

Now my job was a simple jump scare with a twist, or more a shovel. Per instructions, I was to strike the shovel on the ground as patrons approached, yielding a nice reaction 70% of the time. Nothing too dramatic, just gasps, jumps and some screams. As time went on in this post I also discover that the shovel blade plus concrete could produce a spark when struck right.

Enter the couple in grey sweats.

I hope, as long as I live, that I never forget the couple in grey sweats. In haunts it’s easy to hear if there’s a lively group approaching and they were no exceptions.

In ~15 seconds this all unfolds; a VERY heavyset couple leaves the maze and begins to approach, wearing matching light grey sweats pants and sweatshirts. I spark my shovel. She screams bloody murder. Takes off like a startled baby rhino. I dodge her like the matrix. She slams full speed into and takes out the wall behind me, not the best construction as it was a temporary event, completely missing the 180 degree turn that was mentioned earlier. Hangs a right and hauls off down the employee access tunnel towards the exit door.

Leaving a very dumbfounded me and her significant other in the aftermath. In the end, lights had to be turned on. Traffic had to be temporarily stopped. The wall was patched back together. Her suitor was escorted to the back exit where he was reunited with his bonny lass as she was being menaced by a clown with a chainsaw.

Now I’m no spring chicken myself, but if that teacup hippo would have been going a tad faster, she’d have left a Wiley Coyote style hole in that plywood wall.

Image credits: 216horrorworks

#27

When I was little (maybe 6 years old) my siblings and I came in a horror house. For some reason my parents didn’t came in with us, even though the oldest one was 9 and the youngest was 5 (great parenting here, I know). My brothers and I came out of the house but my little sister stayed inside crying and terrified.

So, the monster from the lagoon took her hand and took her outside the house and gave her to my mother. It was really weird.

Image credits: Lis_9

#28

About 3 years ago, (I was 10 at the time,) I was working at a Haunted Pioneer town thing for Halloween. They didn’t have too many regulations at the time, as it was fairly new.

They were serving drinks at the front, including wine. They didn’t really have any way to control how many drinks each person got, so there were a ton of wine drunk adults walking around.

I was a Ghost Bride, and needed to hang out outside the Chapel. There were a bunch of kids throwing rocks around, but I just ignored them for the most part.

There was a massive group of a bunch of drunk people, and they all came over to the chapel where I was hanging out. A bunch of them started hugging me, which I wasn’t comfortable with. I didn’t say anything though, as it was just a hug and I was trying really hard to stay in character.

This one lady, however, decided to hug me and GRAB MY A*S. I pushed her away and started screaming. I told the director about it and they kicked the lady out and warned the group. I went to the break room for about 20 minutes and cried.

The next year there were police and security guards there to make sure no other incidents happened.

A lot of other actors got harassed as well by both the rock-throwing kids and the drunk people.
The whole situation was really messed up and gross, and I’m glad they got more security.

Image credits: anon

#29

Jumped on my back and yelled “Surprise m**********r” in my ear. I wish I was joking.

Image credits: FezzyGamer

#30

I made someone break character. I went to the local haunted house on a date. The guy and I got to the haunted hotel and outside of it a family stopped him and started to ask how his wife and kids were! He told them they had the wrong person but he put his hood up and rushed us inside. He then proceeded to go so fast that I got lost and said "f**k this, he probably IS married" and frankly I was a little annoyed at his allusions to favors in corn mazes.

I found a cast member and quietly asked for the staff exit.

I got to the front of the hotel and the front desk zombie started to give me s**t for taking the coward exit. I told him that I got ditched by my apparently married date and just wanted to go home. His voice rose at least an octave and he goes "Oh honey, f**k that guy. Go home and get a drink or something."

He was right, the wine was much better than my previous company.

Image credits: Fieryirishplease

#31

I was the guest, going threw and I tripped and smashed my head on a barrier. Really pulls you out of the fear with 2 zombies and vampire come running to see if your okay.

#32

My (horrible) ex boyfriend would force me to go to haunted houses even though I was totally horrified.

My way of dealing with it (after crying) was trying to humanize the actors so I would talk to them. Some would be pretty chill and some would get mad at me.

I remember this one really great guy. I guess there were too many people in front of me so we weren’t really moving. So we started talking about how he would only work at the haunted house on the weekends and that he had some regular 9-5 during th week.

It’s one of my favorite memories because this guy was dressed up and supposed to scary and we were just having a normal conversation.

#33

Source of the broken character.
So it was my first semester of college, and some roommates and I decided to go to this place called the Haunted Mill. There’s a section where you leave one building and cross through a field to get to another. So my roommates and I have just left the building, and out of the long grass runs this scary dude with a chainsaw.
My friends scream, but I process fear a little differently.
So instead of screaming, I instead say “Are you here to warn of the dangers of d**g use?”
And he just kind of stops. He slumps, and I hear a strangled noise come from him. He finally just waves us ahead, and I could hear him laughing as we left.

#34

I was the customer. Local pumpkin patch had a haunted forest that you go through. I hate hate scary things and refused to go. Well the people I was with (church group; ironic) kinda coerced me to go “it’s not that scary” “how do you know you’ve never tried” etc. Cue the first jump scare and I was so scared I kinda had a panic attack. Like paralyzed with fear, can’t walk, and bawling my eyes out. Two of the adults literally had to hold me up to get me to move. But it concerned the monsters enough to break character and ask if I was ok. Then they all backed away so I could get taken back out (we weren’t far in so they just had us turn around and go back the way we came).
When I helped with a elementary field trip to a pumpkin patch recently I happily volunteered to stay with anyone who didn’t want to go through the haunted house. Definitely stood up for the kids who were getting teased for being “scaredy cats”.

#35

I was a jump scarer, turn a corner and be about 3 inches from someone's face. Now, ive been punched/hit in some way maybe a dozen times, normally I just don't react to it and they move on. I was n ot used to this on girls level of physical contact however. I did my normal schtick, turn the corner and scream like a german death metal band, however I was not prepared for a 16 year old girl to leap at me and grapple me with her arms AND LEGS, grab the back of my hair and start screaming in my face. Now this girl was maybe 5'5" and 150lbs soaking wet and im a 6'5" 350lb guy but suddenly I don't see that, im just a guy tagged up in a floppy bedsheet getting mauled by a spider monkey. So I tried to push her off but I was totally snared and could not move my arms, so I slammed her against a wall, twice. Now she was not alone, all her friends were there too egging her on, telling her that she was bada*s, but they started screaming when I bodyslammed this teenage girl against the wall of a shipling container. The second slam dislodged her and she screamed at me like a f*****g banshee, so I just took off my mask, grabbed her by the shoulder and started leading her to a quick exit for the staff. At this point she is crying, her friends are crying and chasing me down, but I didnt really care, I'm not making barely above minimum wage to get mauled by insane teenagers. So I threw her out along with her friends and called my boss to have him come escort them out. He ended up being on my side but sternly told me, and I quote, "assaulting guests is generally frowned upon, even if they are f*****g nuts."

Tldr; Girl went full Travis the Chimpanzee on me so I body slammed her and threw her out.

#36

As customer. I went to a haunted house when texas chainsaw was big. The big finish the chainsaw dude would chase everybody out. The one I went to was a few towns away. Anyways, I was young and terrified of it. Saw the movie and it scared the s**t out of me.

Well, during the end of the house the dude chased us but singled me out, picked me and , slammed me on the ground, not hard I wasn’t hurt or it didn’t hurt. Gassed the chainsaw while standing above me scared the living s**t out of me to when I was literally crying. Dude lifts up his mask and it’s my f*****g cousin! Son of a b***h! Still gives me s**t for it. I was around 12 at the time.

#37

Not a haunted house worker, but went to a corn maze after dark once. I’d see employees in the maze wearing scary (LOL) masks and say “Hi, handsome.” You could hear an audible “Damnit!” under their breath afterwards.

#38

One night while working around the outside of the haunted house, I was in charge of the chainsaw. As I was going around doing my thing, a small child about 6/7 walks up to me and one of the other monsters and says “You smell like shame.” He then ran as fast as he could back to his parents. I was both shocked and impressed by his immense bravery. My fellow monster and I had to step away and laugh for a couple minutes after that.

#39

I don’t handle scary things very well but the one time I went, I got jumpscared good by an actress dressed as Regan from the Exorcist. My brothers laughed at me. The actress decided to push her luck and ended up jumpscared me a second time, which caused my brothers laugh even harder and the actress to crack.

#40

I was “the ring girl” back in the day. Had my own little scene set up an open maze type format. Essentially you walk into an outdoor opening of trees, giving the illusion of being lost in the woods (it was blocked off though). In the middle there was a styrofoam well that I would..well…creep..out of (strobe light effect). Anywho, there I am, mid October, barefoot with wet hair cuz I’m a teenager doing my best.. and I’m standing alone in the trees waiting for this next group to come through. It’s nearly pitch black aside from the strobe, the group walks in and those who are gonna freak out are already doing so. I liked to split the groups up by running though them in the open maze. I had sufficiently broken up a big group and was sneaking up behind a boyfriend/girlfriend duo attached to each other..had them isolated..in the dark.I get behind them and right before the big scream, I start to lose my footing..because.. barefoot on a hill at night. I do this cartoonish backwards- trying- to -catch- my- balance thing..the couple sees me, starts screaming/running but by now I’ve completely accepted that I’m gonna eat s**t. Right before the back of my head cracks on the ground, a set of hands catches it. I look up, skinny old guy with a big mustache just holding my head. Had a fireman’s ball cap on. I said thank you feeling like a dork, gushing a little.. he just kindly nodded, smiled a little and kept walking while everyone else is screaming in the distance, running around the maze. I realized that to everyone else I was the scary, but to him I was a teenage girl about to bust her head open in the woods.

#41

My mother in her youth group when she was a teenager said they hosted a haunted house. One of the scenes was a girl struggling with a noose. She was in the room next door. Not sure how they rigged it but it actually turned into a real noose and the guest after entering the room said something like “man she was kicking so hard and went limp for too long. Was expecting her to jump out at us or something”(apparently she was supposed to do that) which made the others go check on her. They resuscitated her luckily but I can’t help but think how those people unknowingly saved the gals life thinking it was a good performance.

#42

Former monster clown. Whenever someone mentioned the word “phobia” or approached me to tell me that someone in their group was too scared of me to go through, I’d introduce myself and turn my back to that group.

I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and I wanted them to GTFO my room so people would keep moving through and not get all bunched up. Huge groups of people were no fun for the guests or the actors.

#43

Customer story

Last year my boyfriend and I went to the fairgrounds near my house where they had three different houses. The first one was a space horror theme, like an alien containment facility or something. We’re heading through this section with chain link fences up to the wall. There’s bodies hanging from it along with some props, not to mention people behind the fence somewhere waiting to scare. Did I mention there was strobe lighting too?

Anyway, my boyfriend is very easily scared by horror movies and such, so he’s a bust for protection. But we pass by this one guy gripping the fence staring down at us, still surrounded by other scary s**t. In a panic I scream to my boyfriend, “I can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t!”

The man hanging from the fence, in a sly tone, replies, “Oh I’m real baby!”

I tense up and say, “OKAY THANK YOU!” Pretty sure that got a smile out of him but kind of hard to tell with the lighting.

#44

Not a worker but caused one to break character because i was too scared. I was pretty young and with a friend, as we were walking thru a haunted maze the chainsaw dude came out and i tripped and fell into the corn. I started crying and telling him i wanted out– he totally helped me and told me which way to go for one of their like “safe” tents? Which was just around the corner. I felt kinda bad but was thankful this guy helped me. Then i had to wait outside the maze for my friends to finish.

#45

A customer:
I was walking through a haunted farm with my friends and wearing my Virginia Tech sweatshirt, when this group of ghouls popped out and screamed. We made our way past them and they all jumped back in front of us and said in a ghoulish voice “GOOoooOooOoOoo RadFOrD” (a neighboring/“rival” college) and we all got a good kick out of that.

#46

Not me but,

I was with my cousin (he’s easily spooked by everything). One of the workers jumped out & screamed to scare us. I pretty much never get spooked, I just enjoy the time & laugh, but my cousin screamed like a five year old girl, grabbed my arm, & yelled, “I’LL SMACK YOU!!!!!” & the worker burst out laughing, barely able to form a single sentence.

#47

We were at Universal during the Halloween event – basically the entire park was a giant haunted house and it was extremely over the top – one part of the park was known to be particularly scary as it involved (prop) chainsaws.

When we got that far the girls were starting to look nervous. The leader of the scary ghost pirates noticed this. She was this really cool lady that ended up making my two small girls her crew mates. This granted them the ability to strut through the very scary parts and if someone tried to scare them they would say “Back off , we’re in Madam Carrey’s pirate crew!”

Worked like a charm and made for a great family memory! If anyone likes a good scare I definitely suggest checking this park out during Halloween times. You do have to buy a separate ticket for Halloween nights admission but it’s a great experience and very well done.

#48

I made a kid pee her pants. Of course, I was proud of it, because it meant I was successfully scary, but I wasn’t going to let her walk through the house in pee pants. I took off my mask and radioed someone to take her through the back.

#49

Touching me ?

I’ve managed to keep in character by scaring them while I say not to touch the scare actors but some people need u to stop and get very serious about it before they understand. That is the only time I’m gonna f**k up the show for u and it’s gonna be your own fault. If you’re bad enough about it I’ll totally drop character and ask you to move on from my room without touching anyone else lol.

#50

I worked a small town one that was on a cheap budget. The only time i broke character was when the parents brought a 4 year old through and i jumped around the corner and made the kid scream bloody murder. Worked well for the atmosphere but it killed my heart.

#51

I had gone through Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights a couple years ago. I’d been through many, many houses before this and I’ve just never been a big “reactor.” I love the houses and I do get scared/surprised all the time in them but its just in my nature to try to stay composed at all times. But one of my bigger legitimate fears is something falling on me. So in this house, for the first time I had ever seen, a live scare actor tips off of a ledge above us and swings across, hanging from wires. As soon as I saw something big tip off a ledge like that I threw my hands up and nearly tripped to the ground with an exasperated “Jesus CHRIST…” and a laugh afterwards. I saw the actor legitimately giggling then look away when I did that, which I thought made the situation even funnier.

#52

I did Halloween Horror Nights in 2015 with my fiance (newly on that trip eh eh eh) and I had a complete blast. If my wife had of been any further up my butt hole I would have charged her rent, but I led the way. Things like this don’t scare me, even jumping from nowhere, there is a switch in my head that says – these are people, its actors, its set up to scare – and I belly laughed the whole way through. I mean roared, I then started taking the p**s in true Irish flair. Coffin Jump – What’s the craic big lawd? Curtain jump – away and sit down ya big balloon yee! I had one performer who jumped me at least four times and followed us out of the maze, my wife screaming and me laughing my head off but you could tell by the reaction he was frustrated lol

Those Halloween Horror Nights – that was some great craic, I hope I can get back to Florida in the future and do it all again!

#53

I was a crazed prisoner right around a corner that you couldn’t see around. I had a small cell and an actual iron bar door. It didn’t lock and opened inward, I would typically leave it a little ajar, then jump into it screaming. The door hit the concrete, big loud bang sound and I’m yelling and screaming about “the bugs”.

One poor girl got ditched by her two friends that ran when I did my scare. She backed into the small room’s opposite corner petrified and started sobbing. I tried to encourage her to move on by telling her I was gonna break out and get her. Didn’t work, so I tried “breaking out” to get her to run, but she slumped to the floor crying.

Ah s**t, now I feel kinda bad. I broke character and asked her if she wanted to leave, she nodded, face still in her hands. Luckily, the room before mine had a couple volunteer firefighters as actors. I got one’s attention and he escorted her out through our in-between paths. I found out at the end of the night our make up artist hung out with her in our break room, sharing bottles of water and pizza we ordered for the staff that night. Still feel kinda sad that her friends just ditched her.

On another night a guy s**t himself in my room, backed into a wall and it smeared against it. Smell lingered and I had to leave my room. Nearly puked.

#54

The only time I had to break character for a guest was when I was working in a pitch-black maze you were supposed to navigate by feel; I was hidden behind a metal grate in the wall and would flip on a strobe and start screaming and beating the grate when they walked by. A guest was using their cell phone as a flashlight to navigate and I had to tell them sternly to shut it off.

#55

Convinced my dad to take me to a haunted house when I was like 7. I remember begging him and telling him I wouldn’t get scared. Well I did get scared and almost had a panic attack in there. A couple actors felt so terrible they took their masks off and said “look! I’m a normal person, it’s just pretend! It’s ok!!” One of them showed us out the side door to save me from more trauma. No more haunted houses after that.

#56

Someone’s mom once asked if i wanted an entire water bottle of bourbon about ten years ago.

I was eighteen and stupid. I took that s**t immediately while the (teenage) daughter looked at her mother with absolute horror. Sorry she didn’t give you free booze, kiddo.

ETA: they were the last hayride of the night and it was 2am.

#57

I was a haunted bush in this grave yard where almost everything was someone ready to scare you

there was this one guy. His reaction was the most feminine scream suddenly abruptly followed by a “damn bruh you need some hedge trimmers up in this b***h”

Myself, the bush next to me, the two buried guys next to him, and the tree behind the guy busted out laughing.

#58

Had a guy shine a flashlight directly into my eyes, which when you’ve been sitting in almost complete darkness for five hours HURTS.

#59

I went to a famous haunted prison where they can actually grab you. One of the workers lunged at me and accidentally grabbed my boob. He went from scary monster to overly appologetic and blabbering. It was adorable. We laughed about it.

#60

I wasn’t a worker but I was the person that made them break character. Long ago when I was in high school, my friends and I used to go to all the haunted houses around town. One in particular had a guy in a wolf mask jump out and scare people. He bumped into me when he jumped out, in retrospect it was likely an accident. At the time, I just reacted and reached out, grabbing his mask and pulling it from his face. Wasn’t intentional. Anyway, next thing I know I’m stumbling through a dark hallway with a wolf head in my hands, not sure what to do and I hear him call out, “Hey kid! Come back with my face!”

I don’t know where that wolfman actor is these days, but I hope he can laugh about it like I do.

#61

I was a guest both times, but ended up with wildly different reactions from actors.
If I’m with a good group of people, folks that I’m comfortable with, I’ll go all out with the scared stuff. Crying, cowering, stuttering – the works. I always felt it would give the actors a sense of satisfaction to really scare folks, as well as giving me a deeper immersion into the experience. I rarely got loud or obnoxious, but definitely over-acted.
Well, the haunted prison we went to had a younger ghoul who’d been hitting on one of the guests from the group in front of us. Once he got to us, and I laid on the waterworks, he broke character again, and had the nerve to ask me, “Why you so scared bro?” I snapped out of it real quick, but it ruined the immersion entirely.

Following year, we hit up a haunted farm that had clowns on it. Same deal with the scared-to-death gag. I share a name with yellow raincoat-clad boy who loses a limb to an infamous clown, so once the clowns heard that, they went all in – offering me balloons, targeting me, following me around. At the end I ran out, acting terrified, and an older lady clown followed me out. “Did you die? See, you’re alright, we’re not that scary.” Mind you, I’m a young mid 20s adult. But she saw how much it “affected” me, came out, and offered me a big clowny hug to make sure I was okay. Definitely going back to that one. A+ customer service.

If you’re gonna break character, make sure you do it the right way.

#62

I jumped out of a tree with a chainsaw at a group of three college girls and scared them so bad they all collapsed in a pile in front of me. I felt bad so I removed my Clown mask and helped them all stand up making sure they were ok. Once everyone was back on their feet and calm once again, I simply put my mask back on and started the saw again. They made it ten feet before they were back in a twisted pile of limbs. ‘Twas a great night.

#63

As a customer, a group of my friends and I went to a more local haunted house thing as a date for our prom group. it was super fun! supposed to be one of the scarier ones in the state – you had to sign a waiver saying they could touch/grab you, they’d feed you worms if they caught you in some areas, if you got out and were waiting for friends they could just put a bag on your head and carry you to a random part of the maze and dump you there. loved it!!
until this one guy that I didn’t know (another customer) just sidled up next to me and kept trying to grab my hand and was just being generally pushy and weird. I was super uncomfortable but I was separated from my friends and didn’t know wtf to do.
but this one girl in the Egyptian-themed area we were in beckoned me over to her (still in character) then when the dude tried to follow after me she breaks character and just stops him saying “cut your s**t.” and tells me to keep going on, still holding him back, back in character.
she waved me through her area for the rest of the night, which was great because her area was the place where they would make you eat worms if they got you. so love her she was great :).

#64

For a few years I volunteered at a local haunted trail to raise money for the community. It’s not a huge thing, but we still had roughly 2,500 guests that year. I only remember one group of teenagers that went through every year.

I need to set the scene quick. We had multiple teams and built our own scenes in the woods. At one scene, we had the groups walk through a “cattle chute”. When patrons got near the end of it, I would pop out, slam a gate to make them appear trapped, lean on it, and distract them while another actor snuck behind them and started the chainsaw.

Of course most people started to freak out. We had cues, so I knew when to step out of the way and when to throw open the *never locked* gate and watch them run to the next area. I never had an issue until the before mentioned group.

There were roughly 8 14/15ish year olds; 5 boys, 3 girls. I recognized a few of the boys as actors, but they must’ve met with their friends on the way. They knew what was coming. Well before the chainsaw started, three of the boys pretended to freak out and full-body slammed into the flimsy pallets we called a gate. Did I mention I’m a 5’5″, 130lb woman? They ripped the gate off and I ended up on my a*s with (thankfully only) a sore wrist and ankle. I barely got a “what the f**k is wrong with you” out before the little a******s took off laughing. The actors In the next area heard me and broke character mid-scene. They told the group they had to come back through and cornered the kids in their area until security arrived.

Im not sure what happened to them after that. We had a show to finish and s**t to fix. We managed to rig the gate back and no issues the rest of the night.

#65

Also, the time a Woman exclaimed she peed her pants, and her friend yells, “Me too! How do we get out of here?” I laughed all the way to showing them the exit wall.

#66

Not me, but a friend of mine works in a haunted house. Four friends came in. Another guy who worked in the haunted house handed him a knife (to add on to the spook, I believe). One girl thought it was a prop and playfully *stabbed her friend with it.*.

#67

So every Halloween the local corn maze puts on a scary maze. Actors in the corn and whatnot. Well in my 18 year old glory I happened to be tossing an ear of corn to myself as I walked through with my little brother.

Cue jumpscare, and me overreacting and just pelted this actor with an ear of corn. Homie just peaced back into the corn. Never saw him again and never got a chance to apologize. If you’re out there cornman, I’m sorry.

#68

I was playing a girl locked in a cage. I quit screaming for help when one of the customers had a seizure.

#69

I was helping with a haunted trail that my dad was organizing for the year when I was 13 and I was wearing a bright orange full body suit. My entire body was orange. It was not very intimidating. I hid in some trees near a creepy clown lady on a seesaw and would emerge and introduce myself as the Creamsicle Man(despite being female), and either threaten to take the people’s creamsicles or tell them the clown lady ate all my creamsicles. I usually just surprised people a little and made them laugh. One girl yelled that there was a bug on me while I was in the middle of introducing myself and I was like “f***k where” and she very eloquently stated “on your boob”. I brushed the bug off and went back to being the creamsicle man.

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