Behind-the-Scenes of
Horror Haunts with
Sunshine Marie Smith

Sunshine: They are the gold standard because they are screen accurate but being with those particular haunts the scare acting is extremely restrictive in that “Your job is to open this door and go ‘boo!’ and take three steps back and do it again every ten seconds. You’re not to change your role in any way, shape, or form. Those people are very much on a high pedestal. They have unions. They’re union actors. They get paid the most. They have the best benefits and a lot of those people that work there are people that come back. They’re extremely loyal. They do not work with other haunts. They only do Halloween Horror Nights. Like, that’s it. They wear patches. There’s a whole frickin’ club. They’re huge. Then after that, you have Knott’s Scary Farm. Knott’s Scary Farm is the largest haunt in Southern California. 

MTH: Haunt wise or location size?

Sunshine: Attractions, shows and they also hire 1,000 scare actors. The difference with Universal versus Knott’s is if you look at the quality of the stuff that happens at Knott’s and the stuff that happens at Universal they’re drastically different in the way that they train their scare actors and the way that they treat their scare actors. At Universal, you’re hired to play a part. At Knott’s, they’ll say, “So, hey! We’re going to put you in the London streets and we want you to be a murderous character. So, you can make your own costume and come up with your own character. You’re good to go!” You get to pick your own costume. You get to pick your own character. You get to create and that’s what they do with all their street actors. So, any of the scare zone actors that’s all stuff that those people have been able to create. Also, in each haunt, there are certain positions that are extremely coveted. Being a scare actor in a maze is like you’re a freshman. Then you get into your streets. So, people who are doing walkarounds. So, people who are walking around and scaring people. You’ve been given a lot of responsibility.

The absolute most coveted position is being a chainsaw for Universal Studios. You cannot get a better position than being a chainsaw. They train together. They work out together. These people become like their own little gang and they’re called the chainsaw brigade or something like that. They have their own clique. They have their own patches and jackets. They’re the cool kids and then at Knott’s their pinnacle is being a slider and you get inducted into being a part of the decay brigade and they perform places. They take their stuff to the streets. They’ve performed at festivals and stuff like that as the Knott’s sliders but they change their name. They can’t be the Knott’s Sliders. They’re the Decay Brigade and that’s what they do. They just set up and slide places.

MTH: That is fun! They do that at Midsummer Scream. They have the slider show. What’s been your favorite experience in the Haunt industry?

I mean honestly, one of the biggest perks is making people scream and pee their pants. That is one of my favorite things in the world when you can make someone pee or roll around on the floor. That makes me laugh so hard. I love it so much.

MTH: Do you have any standouts that you can remember? 

Sunshine: Oh my gosh, so it was my first year and there was this lady…she was terrified of clowns and her friends pushed her into the room and she was terrified. She had all these little kids with her and I was in this room where it had a jack-in-the-box in the center of the room and it would go (sings) duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, dah, then this little jack-in-the-box opens and then a bungee clown would come down and then I would come out of the closet. So, (the jack-in-the-box opens) the little clown goes up. She goes, “That ain’t nothing!” then the bungee clown comes down and she’s on the floor screaming and then I come out and she’s crawling and kicking, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” (laughter). She’s crawling out of the maze “My God!” She’s like rolling on the floor and screaming and it was the funniest…she was like BAM! On the floor! You definitely need the misdirect. It makes a difference. Well, some of the biggest scares are those people in those frickin’ ghillie suits!

MTH: Oh man, those ghillie suits! (A ghillie suit is as a camouflaged outfit, one worn by snipers, hunters, and soldiers so that they can’t be easily seen.) 

Sunshine: Those ghillie suits will get you every time. It’s hilarious.