4B - Thursday, October 31, 2013

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

4B - Thursday, October 31, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

SCREAMS
From Page 1B
Josh McDaniel doesn'tlook like
someone who scares people for a
living. Open-faced, soft-spoken,
lightly built and perpetually smil-
ing, he's the type of guy who most
would expect to hold their arm,
kindly guiding them through a'
dark room should they lose their
way.
On general occasions, he proba-
bly is that guy, but every weekend,
he becomes a deranged lunatic,
terrorizing any paying customer
that has the misfortune of stum-
bling in front of him at Ypsilanti's
Night Terrors, one of Michigan's
most established haunted houses.
"The goal is to leave people
traumatized. And this is pretty
much the only time and place
where that's OK," McDaniel said.
He plays an unhinged filmmak-
er with a southern drawl, pleading
innocent spectators to sample his
twisted videography once they
enter his "scene," codename for
the room or space in which he's
tasked with "entertaining" cli-
ents.
"In the pre-scene, customers-
get to see these messed-up, home-
made films, with the grossest stuff
you can imagine. Then I get right
in their faces and say 'Did you see
mah movies? What'd you thank
of 'em? You ain't just sayin' that
cuz I'm here are ya?' " McDaniel
said. "People will always think,
'Just say yes to him. Just say yes,'
and then I hit a really high note
with 'Thanks for your criticism,'
which is somehow weird enough
to prime them for the rest of the
house."
Before moving to Michigan

was already a performer by trade.
He did stand-up comedy and fre-
quently worked in professional
stage productions, an experience
he cites as having helped him in
his terrorizing role.
In order to secure a job at the
haunted house, he, like the count-
less other regular employees he
works with, had to audition for
specific openings that managers
advertised.
"It's almost like the NFL draft,"
said manager Jim Connors.
"There are six event managers,
each responsible for a different
attraction, and we just kind of sit
down and argue among ourselves
about why certain actors would
work best where."
The audition consisted of a line
reading and scene test, where
McDaniel had to effectively use a
prop to create scares. Despite the
highly professional setting, the
people working at Night Terrors
describe their weekend jobs as
something of an escape from the
typically mundane office life.
Chris Doemer, an actor who
has been working at Night Terrors
for two years, likened the haunted
house to an emotional release.
"I work for an office, just kind
of sitting in a room with no win-
dows and doing data entry, file.
work and 'sensitivity training,"
he said. "Doing something which
is kind of the polar opposite of
everyday living just allows you to
let out that aggression and feel the
adrenaline rush."
The job is also heavily reliant
onthe workers' capacity for physi-
cal exertion. Shifts typically last
the entire show-time, from 7:15
p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Sundays and
Thursdays and even later on Fri-
days and Saturdays. Performers

for a large part of that duration or
prepare for the slew of customers
the haunted house usually draws.
"Sometimes, it can be like
removing cysts out of my body,
because you have to apply your-
self every night to be somebody
that you're clearly not. It can mess
with you," Doemer said.
The actors rehearse every line
assigned to them beforehand,
with small adjustments and addi-
tions made over the course of the
entire scare season, which began
on Sep. 27 and ends Halloween
night. Even the props, most of
which a technical staff has built
from scratch, are adjusted as man-
agers gauge how wellthe audience
is reacting to each.
Walking through the "ware-
house," where props are stored
and actors are prepped before
work nights, is like being thrust
behind the curtains of a morbid
Broadway production. Fake sev-
ered heads, smears of faux blood,
plastic gargoyles and fully func-
tional fog machines line the walls
and litter the floor. The scene is
framed perfectly by a haunting
organ melody, wafting through
from an unknown corner while
a large plastic sheet separates
the storage area and the makeup
room. At least 10 to 15 perform-
ers squeeze in front of plated wall
mirrors. Some are going through
makeup while others pace the
floor, practicing lines.
One actor, chewing on gummy
bears and silently mumbling his
script back to himself, refuses to
sit down for an interview. He's
getting in the zone. Stepping away
could ruin the whole process. A
supervisor motions onlookers
away.
The six managers are tasked
with coordinating everything to
a T, from positioning and organiz-
ing actors to overseeing techni-
cal difficulties with equipment.
Some, like Connors, have been
with the company for more than
two decades.
Connors knows every corner of
every square foot of the haunted
houses like the back of his hand.
Like the other managers, he
makes sure the actors are inter-
acting together cohesively like a
well oiled machine, but also works
with a team of technicians that
oversees any necessary modifica-
tions to the already gargantuan
facility.
"I started out strictly on a part-
time basis, and through the years,
my involvement increased as we
expanded." he said. "It got to
the point where I did a lot of the
building (and) design work, and it
all just kind of became a labor of
love - I had to enjoy what I was
doing."
Connors wanders through the
sprawling set of buildings like
he has made the tour a thousand
times before (which he probably

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MARLENE LACASSE/Daily
Most props ire largely built from scrap and enhanced and maintained throughout the scare season.

has). He frequently calls attention
tothe levelof detail ineverysingle
scene. From rubbery imitation'
severed arms splayed out on false
operating tables to a Leatherface
lookalike wielding a chainsaw
and swinging on a cord suspend-
ed from the ceiling, it becomes
clear how much thought has gone
behind each embellishment.
The six attractions - The Ulti-
mate Haunted Barn, The Asylum,
The Mined Shaft, Alien Caged
Clowns, The Labyrinth and Hay-
ride of the Lost - are all main-
tained and planned individually.
Each is staffed by its own slate of
actors and usually managed bycthe
same supervisor.
All the rooms flow together
organically. Walking through,
Connors stresses how every
attraction could work as a stand-
alone haunted house.
"Typically, when we sit and
plan, the big thing that we really
concentrate on is the theme. We
want to carry a theme from the
beginning of an event to the end
of an event," Connors said.."I
think alot of other places just cre-
ate scene after scene of what they
think 'scary' is and there's no real
consistency to it."
The Mined Shaft is like a shrine
to a sense of claustrophobia. In
every scene, the walls are dark and
the hallways narrow. The entire
building seems to be caving in,
giving customers the feeling that
they're trapped ina faulting mine.
Toward the end of the tour, par-
ticipants have to kneel down and
squeeze through what can only be
described as an inverted bouncy
house, inflatable walls pushing in
on all sides as they shove their way
to the exit.
And does it work?
"I've seen a guy that was really
enthusiastic about being in the
front of the line who got scared,
turned around and literally ran
through a wall." Connors said.
"And you have to understand, our
events are very well built."
Anyone over the age, of 10 can

go in without adult supervision,
though it's highly recommended
to attend with a group of people.
Visitors have been known to lose
their way, curl up into the fetal
position and wait for someone to
come get them. At least one per-
son "goes to the bathroom" every
week. Needless to say, Night Ter-
rors doesn't hold back the hurt.
But the intriguing bit is how much
enthusiastic feedback these same,
terrified people are willing to give.
Some of the scariest parts of the
tours, including but not limited to
a giant mechanical goat head and
a plastic cadaver bound to a couch
attached to the ceiling, have been
added and modified specifically
because of the comments manag-
ers sometimes receive about par-
ticular sections of the haunted
houses notpackingenough punch.
Brandon Wiard, whose family
owns the haunted houses along
with the accompanying cider mill
and country fair, described how
it's important to make sure that
the identity of the attractions is
maintained despite tweaks and
alterations.
"Think of it like when you go to
see a really good movie that you
end up loving and immediately
want to go watch' it again," he
said. "If there's a really significant
change, you lose that effect."
Some people have made it a
tradition to come to the establish-
ment every year in preparation
for Halloween. These "veterans"
often times just show up to go
through the same attraction mul-
tiple times, looking to connect
with the actorsthat have been ter-
rifying them for years.
"We open the doors and we get
the phone calls and so many times,
the same people have been com-
ing year to year for so long that we
actually think of them in a scene
before we set it up," Wiard said.
This idea of growing with the
haunted houses is something
Wiard has experience with. Night
Terrors started up when he was
three years old and Wiard got

involved with the country fair
in his teens. As a youth, he was.
responsible for organizing and
coordinatingthe "kiddie" haunted
house, which he ran most days
after school.
"It was still a portion of the
night-time haunted house, but just
one monster running around," he
recounted. "But I used to love it.
I remember always coming home
without my voice because I'd be
screaming so much."
After taking a break from work-
ing in the family business, Wiard
returned three years ago, and
since then has been focusing on
perfecting Night Terrors. He's
cites a passion for his work, evi-
dent in the level of detail every
employee is happy to boast about,
as the most important driving fac-
tor for his work.
In every corner of the grounds,
you get the overwhelming sense
that everyone is enjoying what
they're doing. The managers are
casually joshing around with the
actors, jibing each other for set-
ting up equipment wrong or guid-
ing newbies through their first
night of scaring.
It's an eclectic mix of people,
but it's obvious they're all here
for the same reason: to celebrate
a joint love for anything creepy. I
think Connors summarized it best
when he showed off the Hayride
of the Lost.
He pointed at a small opening
into the woods where a make-
shift cabin had been constructed.
As a tractor carrying a group
of approximately 20 customers
pulled over next to it, an actor
burst out onto a small balcony and
shouted something along the lines
of, "You'll be so terrified, you'll
run like your hair is on fire!" .
Moments later, a jet of flame
erupted from a chimney-like
chute on top of the cabin. Connors
chuckled and pointed.
"Yup," he said. "It's that
look on their faces right there
- closest thing I'll get to free
entertainment."

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MARLENE LACASSE/Daily
All regular actors must audition for specific roles before the season starts.

Each week we take shots at the biggest
developments in the-entertainment world.
Here's what hit (and missed) this week.
Sam Raimi is confi
Army of Darkness
Ja Rule to pen microwave-based
cookbook inspired by recent
-prison stunt

Lou Reed passes to the other (wild) side
Two days after the loss of "The
Simpson's Marcia Wallace,
Lou Reed passes away

6
4

Joe-Bros are no mno'!
The Jonas Brothers [finally]
break up.

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