The atmosphere of Halloween can be felt through the horrors of a haunted house on a cold October night. 

Haunts across San José have been in operation since the beginning of the month and with Halloween on Friday.

Stevie Bryant, a production supervisor is known as Stevie during the day, but by night, he becomes Trembles The Clown for the Dead Time Dreams Haunted Attraction.  

Bryant has been involved in the scare acting business since 1998 following the participation of his parents.

“I’m one of the main characters in the Midway named Trembles The Clown,” Bryant said, “I’m a keyline scare actor, I go out there and entertain people in line.” 

According to Bryant, a keyline scare actor is a type of scare actor that works around the queue lines in the front of the house to frighten guests and set the tone before they step inside the attraction.

Every actor is different in their preparation, but Bryant has his own method to get into character before a night of scaring. 

Keyline acting is not all that Bryant does, he will rotate areas, change outfits and do the scaring in the house on days where he might not take the pictures with people in line. 

“All I really do to get prepared, have fun and have a good night is basically stretch, get a nice playlist to get me in a good mood and a nice good vibe going on. Sometimes it’s heavy metal and sometimes it’s (electronic dance music),” Bryant said. 

Trained on using a chainsaw for the attraction he oversees, he trains new scare actors how to use it. 

Though he welds this motorized saw, nerves can come before actors get into a rhythm for the rest of the night.

“That first scream is when you get locked in – it might take a minute or two to find that groove, but once you get that first scream, you’re like ‘I’m ready to go,’” Bryant said. 

His character Trembles can act in different ways to catch people off guard when they’re in line for the attraction. 

“I’m one of those actors where I’m not always scary, sometimes I’m funny, nice, evil. You really don’t know what you’re going to get with me,” Bryant said.

The scare actor’s job is to create an adrenaline rush and scare people that dare to go through the haunted attraction. 

When going to a haunted house, some scare actors don’t have leniency for anyone that goes through the haunts. 

“I don’t have mercy, you can be a kid, an old lady, or a couple. I’m gonna go after you – that’s how I made my name over the years,” Bryant said.  

According to Bryant, being a scary actor is not just scaring people while they go through a haunt, there’s a lot more work that goes into it. 

Bryant said there’s different methods and tactics that scare actors execute to perfect their craft and get reactions from their victims. 

“What people don’t understand is that this takes a lot out of us, it’s a lot of work especially for those that do more intense things – (Some actors) are fully geared up and they run and slide on the ground,” Bryant said. 

Scare acting is not the only job in a haunted house, a lot of work goes into the development and it’s not always just the fun that goes into scaring people. 

D.J. LaForge is an executive for a software company by day, but at night, operates the control room of Rebel Yell Haunt. 

LaForge built Rebel Yell Haunt 26 years ago on top of his house, alongside engineer of the business Ernie Lopez.  

“It started off as a hobby and we started decorating some stuff, wore masks and costumes,”

Lopez said. “It would be funny if we hid among the mannequins and scared people.”

When guests walk through the house, the crew of Rebel Yell communicate with each other when scaring people, especially when someone seems like a great scare victim.

“It’s a lot of work, but I love it – I love that process of making something like that happen – creating something, creating an environment to be immersive and come to life,” said LaForge. 

Sometimes the environment becomes a little too real for some guests, leading to some unsavory reactions.
“I’ve been punched in the chest once – I can take a punch, but (a guest) hit me square in the sternum, I never broke character, but I was thinking ouch.” Lopez said while laughing.

The business doesn’t recommend kids go through the haunt since it is a “PG-13” haunt which is slightly gorey, has corpses jump out and actors chasing you, but allows guests to take their kids if they think they can handle it, according to the Rebel Yell Haunt website.
There’s a lot of time and commitment that goes into these establishments and most of the time it’s volunteer work, but people involved enjoy their experience. 

“The people’s reactions, the ‘thank you’s, scares, people jumping and screaming and the people coming out the door laughing at how much they were screaming,” LaForge said. “Hearing that kind of stuff is rewarding, the people’s reactions are the best part and the camaraderie.”